942 New species of Cyprinida. [Nov. 



advantage of your position to forward the interests of science. I asked 

 him if there was any particular object in natural history which I might 

 suggest to you as a desideratum which could be supplied from India. 

 He immediately replied emphatically ' ah certainement, les poissons 

 d'eau douce ;' he added that some gentleman in Calcutta had already 

 sent him a good many of those of the lower rivers and parts of the 

 country, but that they had no account of those of the higher parts." 



Buchanan states, that while engaged in the provinces remote from 

 the sea he met with few species he had not before seen, but previous to 

 his departure for Europe, on returning to the vicinity of the large 

 estuaries he daily met with unknown species. In the large rivers above 

 the influence of the tides he therefore supposed that not more than one 

 species in five escaped his attention, while of those of the estuaries he 

 had not described above one half. These last have recently engaged 

 the attention of Dr. Cantor, who during the season of 1836-7 accom- 

 panied the surveying expedition under Capt. Lloyd as medical officer, 

 while I have been engaged in the former since my journey to Assam 

 in 1835. 



The results prove the accuracy of Buchanan's remarks, for while 

 most of those obtained by Dr. Cantor in the Sunderbuns have 

 proved to be new, not more than one in five of the fresh water species 

 inhabiting the large rivers in the interior, escaped the observation of 

 Buchanan; but when we trace those rivers upwards from the com- 

 mencement of the rapids into the mountains, the number of unknown 

 forms augments in proportion to those that have been described, so that 

 we may reverse the ratio given by Buchanan, and consider not more 

 than one in five as having hitherto been made known, thus correspond- 

 ing with Cuvier's notion ' that we have no accounts of those of higher 

 parts.' Still, if Cuvier had been acquainted with the extent of Bu- 

 chanan's labours on the subject, he would have seen that the whole of 

 that author's Gar rue are Alpine forms. This peculiar group which I 

 have incorporated with the genus Gonorhynchus is fully described in the 

 Gangetic fishes, but the drawings having been retained with the author's 

 extensive collections of papers in every department of natural history 

 at the library of the botanic garden, no figures of them were given 

 to the public by Buchanan, and unfortunately Cuvier and other 

 icthyologists only adopted such of his species as were figured in the 

 work referred to. 



CYPRINIDiE. 



One dorsal fin, stomach without ceecal appendages, branchial mem- 

 brane with few rays, 



