10 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



plates ; or^ in other words^ they are more or less mailed: 

 in both do we find instances where the first dorsal ray 

 is not only spinous^ but armed with prickles on its ante- 

 rior edge : in both the eyes are small_, and placed close 

 to each other^ towards the top of the head ; and in both 

 is its inferior surface considerably flattened: the analogy^ 

 in fact^ cannot be stronger ; so that_, whatever dispo- 

 sition may be made hereafter of the other groups_, no 

 arrangement which does not preserve this most beautiful 

 relation of the Canthileptes to the Siluridcs, can possibly 

 be natural. "We look to this^ therefore_, as the strongest 

 collateral proof of the general correctness of our arrange- 

 ment;, because this arrangement is founded upon rela- 

 tions of affinity ; that is^ by tracing the series of groups 

 in all their details : and yet^ after having done so^ we 

 find that this series of affinity brings to light another 

 series of analogy^ even more beautifully harmonious than 

 the first_, inasmuch as it adds another instance to that 

 general system of representation which pervades the 

 whole of these vertebrated groups contained in our 

 former volumes. As we shall have occasion^ hereafter^ 

 to illustrate this part of our present exposition in more 

 detail^ we may pass on to the relations between the 

 JBIennidcE and the Cohitidce, two singular groups of small- 

 sized fishes_, remarkable for being altogether viviparous, 

 and in having the branchial aperture very much con- 

 tracted^ although not sufficiently so as to constitute them 

 spiraculated fishes^ hke the eels. That the blennies 

 and gobies^ of all the acanthopterygious order^ make 

 the nearest approach to the eels, is sufficiently evident 

 when we look to the Anarrhicas, where the ventral fins 

 disappear, and the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are united: 

 and yet M. Cuvier very justly observes, that these eel- 

 like fishes may be called blennies without ventrals. The 

 loaches, again, are so closely allied to the Salmonido', by 

 means of the carp (^Cyprinince), that Cuvier places them 

 in the same family; from which, however, they differ 

 most essentially, in being viviparous. We revert to 

 these relations of affinity, because the absolute connec- 



