THE TRIBE OF GYMNETRES. 



45 



in the greatest depths, and it is only at long intervals, 

 or after a succession of tempests, that a solitary indi- 

 vidual is cast up on the shore, v\rith its delicate hody 

 torn and mutilated by the element or by the rocks. 

 Such may be truly said of nearly all the genera con- 

 tained in this tribe, the only exceptions being those of 

 Cepola {fig. 7') and Ophidium, which have a more 



compact and robust organisation, and habitually frequent 

 the same moderate depths as the generality of edible 

 fish. 



(47.) The Mediterranean Sea has hitherto produced 

 by far the largest proportion of the riband-fish, and our 

 discovery of some highly interesting forms so far back 

 as in 1 8 1 4 and 1815, but still unknown to ichthyologists, 

 will not only show the excessive rarity of this tribe, 

 but will evince how very little we yet know of the 

 pelagic families, even in shores so often explored as 

 those of the Mediterranean. The wide distribution of 

 this group, which extends from the Arctic regions to 

 the sunny shores of India, gives us every reason to 

 suppose that they must be more numerous in inter- 

 tropical latitudes than even in the Mediterranean, so 

 that, much as we shall now augment the number upon 

 record, we believe that not one tithe have yet been 

 discovered. Upon the British coast, indeed, there has 

 been, at remote intervals, two or three individuals cast 



