224 Apodal Fishes of Bengal. 



to by Cuvier as Congers ; namely, Murcena strongylodon, Schn. 

 Mur. nigra, Risso, Anguilla Marbree, Quoy and Gaym, Voy. 

 de Frecin. t. 51, f. 2, and M. Savanna, Cuv. from Martinique. 

 Ophisurus longmusean, Cuv. Quoy and Gaym. 1. c. ; Oph. 

 guttatus, Cuv. a new species from Surinam. M. Saga, 

 Risso, remarkable for elongated jaws and the extension of 

 the tail into a point ; it evidently belongs to the genus Da- 

 lophis, Raf. The other three are Muraenidse with a single 

 row of sharp teeth on the edges of the jaws, viz. M. Moringa, 

 Cuv. from the Antilles, Catesb. ii. xxi. ; M. punctata Bl. ; 

 and M. meleagris, Sch. Lastly, two species referred by Cuvier 

 to the genus Sphagebranchus, Bl., viz. Leptocephalus spal- 

 lanzani, Risso, Ccecula pterygea, Vahl. Mem. d'Hist. Nat. 

 de Copenh. iii. x. iii. v. 13. 1. 2. 



Lastly, twelve species of Apodal fishes, known only by 

 their remains in the tertiary strata of Europe, are figured in 

 the Ittiolithologia Veronese, and two in M. Agassiz's work 

 on Fossil Fishes. Being extinct, these species cannot be 

 said, strictly speaking, to come within our present object, 

 which is limited chiefly to the species of Bengal, and the 

 position which they hold in the general distribution of the 

 order. This I have endeavoured to exhibit in the following 

 table, already referred to, p. 206. 



It may be remarked however with regard to the solid 

 parts of animals dispersed throughout the strata of the 

 earth, that they prove a gradual cooling to have taken place 

 in the temperature of the globe, by which alone we are 

 enabled to account for the remains of tropical animals found 

 in high northern latitudes. The history of Apodal fishes 

 only tends to confirm the general fact of such a change. 

 The accompanying table shows as already remarked, p. 206, 

 that the number and variety of Apodal fishes increase as we 

 approach the tropics. In Bengal the lowest latitude in 

 which they have been examined, we have probably ten 

 species of the genus Anguilla, which is more than double the 



