252 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



every other character it is a true salmon : this analogy, 

 in fact, is particularly strong, yet not more so than that 

 between Laurida and the Esocincs, or pikes. Both 

 these have enormous mouths, presenting, when opened, 

 a forest of teeth of all sizes, and in all the internal 

 parts j so that the Lauridce are the pikes of the sea, as 

 much as Esox is of the fresh waters. This result, 

 which is the consequence of restoring Laurida to its 

 natural situation, close to the typical salmon, is exceed- 

 ingly interesting, because it establishes the two most 

 obvious analogies: one being remote, as to the sharks; the 

 other approximate, being to the pikes. We look on this 

 part of our arrangement as the most certain affinity in 

 the whole series : and we shall now proceed to the next 

 group. 



(222.) To the second great genus of the salmons 

 we retain the original name of Characinus, given to the 

 majority by Artedi. The number and variety of these 

 are even greater than those of the last genus ; but they 

 are all natives of Tropical America. Unlike the Eu- 

 ropean salmon, the majority of these fish are short and 

 deep in the body, so that some assume the discoid form 

 of the flat fish : the mouth is short and very blunt ; and 

 although not wide, is moderately large : the commis- 

 sure, instead of being straight and nearly horizontal, is 

 considerably angulated, and obliquely vertical. They are 

 further distinguished from the European types by the 

 superior length of the anal fin, which is generally four or 

 five times as long as it is broad ; whereas, in the genus 

 Salmo, this fin is always short, at least in the typical 

 examples. The only exception to these characters 

 occur in certain Brazilian river fish, placed by Spix 

 and Agassiz in the sub-genera Curimata, Leporinus, 

 Anodus, and Prochilodus : these are all of an oblong 

 shape, much like that of Coregonus, which they further 

 resemble in the shortness and breadth of their anal fins, 

 and the smallness of their mouth. The natural station 

 of these sub-genera, and their relative rank, is too diffi- 

 cult to allow of our arriving at any certain conclusion : 



