PAL^OKHYNCHIDiE. 437 



from the Cape of Good Hope, South Australia, New Zealand, 

 and Chili, is preserved, pickled or smoked. In ISTew Zea- 

 land it is called " Barracuda " or " Snoek," and exported 

 from the colony into Mauritius and Batavia as a regular 

 article of commerce, being worth over £17 a ton ; Th. pretiosus, 

 the "Escholar" of the Havannah, from the Mediterranean, 

 the neighbouring parts of the Atlantic, and the West Indies ; 

 Th. prometheus from Madeira, Bermuda, St. Helena, and 

 Polynesia ; Th. solandri from Amboyna and Tasmania is 

 probably the same as Th. promeiheiis. 



Young specimens of this (or, perhaps, the following) genus 

 have been described as Dicrofus. In them the finlets are not 

 yet detached from the rest of the fin ; and the ventral fins, 

 which are entirely obsolete in the adult fish, are represented 

 by a long crenulated spine. 



Gempylus. — Body very elongate, scaleless. The first dorsal 

 fin continuous, with thirty and more spines, and extending on 

 to the second. Six finlets behind the dorsal and anal. Several 

 strong teeth in the jaws, none on the palate. 



One species ((?. serpens), inhabiting considerable depths of 

 the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 



Family — Pal^oehynchid^. 



This family has been formed for two extinct genera: 

 Pcdceorhynchus from the schists of Claris, and Hemirhynchus 

 from tertiary formations near Paris. These genera resemble 

 much the Trichiuridce in their long, compressed body, and 

 long vertical fins, but their jaws, which are produced into a 

 long beak, are toothless, or provided with very small teeth. 

 The dorsal fin extends the whole length of the back, and the 

 anal reaches from the vent nearly to the caudal, which is 

 forked. The ventrals are composed of several rays and 

 thoracic. The vertebra long, slender, and numerous, and, like 

 all the bones of the skeleton, thin, indicating that these fishes 



