18 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CHINA 



liparids, blermies, cottoids, and agonids. At the same time 

 we find the Pacific salmonoids appearing, and running up 

 the rivers to spawn, in exactly the same way as they do on 

 the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, and the North 

 Paeifie coast states of America. In other words, the marine 

 fishes of the Manchurian region show strong affinities with 

 those of North America. 



The fresh-water fishes of China are in many ways 

 unique, or, perhaps it would be better to say, China possesses 

 a somewhat unique fresh-water fish fauna. It is over- 

 whelmingly cyprinid in its composition, the carp family 

 having reached a high stage of development in these parts. 

 It is impossible to give a list of the pecular cyprinids that 

 occur in Chinese waters, but a few forms may be mentioned. 

 The gigantic Elopichthys bambusa, which resembles in its 

 external characteristics a salmon, and reaches a length of 

 four or five feet, and a weight of over a hundred catties, is 

 one. The peculiar Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, whose 

 generic name means the fish with the eyes on the under 

 side, is another. This species also attains a great size. 

 China also possesses some. very remarkable gudgeons, one 

 of which is very long and slender in the body, and has a 

 long snout, which gives it the appearance of a sturgeon. 

 Breams, chubs, carps, culters, bitterlings, minnows, and 

 loaches are all represented, many of them by genera purely 

 Chinese. It is maintained that China was one of the centres 

 of development and dispersal of the ciprinids, or carp family, 

 and from a survey of its fish one might well believe this to 

 be true. 



Next to- the carps come the cat-fishes, or Siluridac . 

 Here again China contains a great variety of species, though, 

 taken as a whole, they have nothing like the economic value 

 of the carps. 



Other groups of importance are the so-called Chinese 

 perches, which are in reality basses, certain cottoids, or 

 bullheds, and the serpent-heads. 



Of isolated species the little Poly acanthus opercularis, 

 from which the Chinese have bred the paradise fish,, and the 

 peculiar ganiod Psephurus gladius, which inhabits the 

 Yangtse and the Yellow Biver, and whose only other near 

 relation is confined to the Mississippi, are worthy of mention. 

 The distribution of the latter species and its near relation 

 is interesting, as it is exactly that of the alligators, of which 

 we noted that one form occurs in the Yangtse and the other 

 in the Mississippi basin. It may further be noted that the 

 ganoids, like the alligators, belong to a very ancient type. 



