S4 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



are very much branclied^ and are completely detached 

 from each other^ being placed at much wider distances 

 apart than are the true connected rays of the adjoining 

 fins.* The other characters are of a secondary nature, 

 inasmuch as they vary in the minor divisions. The 

 most typical are the mackerels {Scomber uue), and the 

 tunnies (^ThymnincB), hoth of which have two dorsal fins; 

 the former^ however^ is distinguished by having the 

 dorsal fins wide apart, while in the tunny they are close 

 together: the pointed upper jaw of these latter fish, and 

 their fleshy keel^ or the carinated ridges on each side of 

 their tail, brings them into close connection, as Cuvier 

 well observes, with the sword fish (Xiphius). This group, 

 which forms a sub-family, is composed of the largest 

 fish in the whole order : they are generally found in 

 pairs, wandering in the warmer seas of Europe and 

 the tropics, but they are few in species, and thinly, 

 although widely dispersed; some have been captured 

 near fifteen feet long, and they appear to be so irritable 

 and pugnacious, that they frequently rush at a vessel 

 with such impetuosity as to drive their snout into the 

 timbers so far that they cannot extricate themselves, and 

 so perish.t There are one or two species which annually 

 visit the Sicilian shores, whose flesh, as we can per- 

 sonally testify, is most delicious ; more resembhng, 

 when fried, a veal cutlet, than any other meat. The 

 sword fish have but one dorsal, yet this is often ex- 

 cessively high and long, while the ventral fins, which 

 in the tunnies are very small, noAv become entirely 

 wanting : the mackarels on the other hand follow the 

 tunnies, from which they also differ in wanting that 

 fleshy keel on the tail, seen both in the tunny and the 

 sword fish. From these the passage appears very gradual 

 to the genus Gempy^us (^G. prometlieus C fig. 5.\ and 

 this appears to lead us immediately to Alepisaurus, at 



• These appendages are only found well developed, out of this family, 

 in Corynemus Cuv., the true situation of which may therefore admit ot 

 forae doubt. 



f M. Cuvier observes, that "a parasitical crustaceous animal penetrates 

 into it5 flesh, and maddens it to such a degree that it sometimes darts itseli 

 on the shore." 



