370 THE OCEAN WORLD, 
the Wrasse (/abrus), a genus of fishes decked in the most lively 
colours; for the yellow, green, blue, and red, forming bands of 
spots, give the body the appearance of being enriched with brilliant 
metallic reflections. 
We represent here, as a type of the genus, the adult Green and 
Red Labrus (Fig. 374), varieties of the commonest species, called 
the sea-parrot, the body being oblong, clothed with large scales; a 
‘dorsal fin, frequently with membranous appendages, thick fleshy lips, 
and large conical teeth; cheeks and gill-covers clothed with scales ; 
gill-covers smooth at the edges ; three spines in the anal fin. 
IV.—PHYSOSTOMATA, 
The principal character of the fishes of this order is that the rays 
of the fins are soft, except sometimes the first ray of the dorsal or 
pectoral. They inhabit either sea or fresh water, and include fishes 
of the utmost importance as human food, such as the herring, the 
cod, the salmon, carp, pike, and many others. Modern naturalists, 
following Miiller, divide them into two sub-orders :—1. Agoda, with- 
out ventral fins; 2. Adbdominalia, having ventral fins. 
1. Apoda.—There are but three families in this sub-order, which 
comprehends great numbers both of genera and species; they are 
anguilliform or snake-like, elongated in form, the skin thick and soft, 
and have no ventral fins. 
In the Gymmotide the dorsal fin is entirely wanting ; the body is 
long, nearly cylindrical, and also serpent-like, the tail being long in 
comparison tothe other parts of the body ; beneath the tail is a long 
anal fin, the tail is the only locomotive organ; it is the nakedness of 
the back which confers its designation of yupvds, naked, varos, back. 
The species of the genus Gymmotus are fresh-water fishes of South 
America, where they attain a great size. There are several species,. 
but the most remarkable, from its singular physical properties, is the 
Electrical Eel, Gymnotus electricus (Fig. 375). These properties 
enable the Electrical Eel to arrest suddenly the pursuit of an enemy, 
or the flight of its prey, to suspend on the instant every movement of 
its victim, and subdue it by an invisible power. Even the fishermen 
themselves are suddenly struck and rendered torpid at the moment of 
‘seizing it, while nothing external betrays the mysterious power 
possessed ‘by the animal. 
The electrical properties of the Gymnotus were reported for the 
first time by Van Berkal. The astronomer Richer, who had been 
sent to Cayenne in 1671 by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on 
