250 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



Malacopteryges, or the spiny and the soft-rayed orders. 

 Other analogies may possibly exists but these are quite 

 sufficient for our present purpose. Mallotus, it will be 

 remembered^ is the only division of these salmon which 

 possesses very ample rounded pectoral fins ; and the 

 apodal is the only order to which^ from this structxire 

 being absolutely universal, this type can be compared. 

 It is further remarkable, that Mallotus has the body very 

 much lengthened, — another point in which it shows an 

 analogy to the eel-shaped fishes of the apodal order ; 

 the length of the anal fin (always more developed in 

 this than in any of the primary types of fishes) likewise 

 favours the supposition that Mallotus is the anguilli- 

 form type of the salmon. The analogy of Anastomus 

 to the Plectognathes is so evident, that no additional il- 

 lustration is necessary. There now remains only Lau- 

 rida, which stands opposite to the cartilaginous order. 

 If any of our readers wishes to be convinced that these 

 are the sharks of the salmon race, let him look at the 

 head of one of these species {fig. 48.), and, without being 

 exactly able to explain in what this analogy consists, he 

 will be convinced that it is founded in nature. One 

 important character of these salmon, not mentioned by 

 our predecessors, is the great flatness of the head, and 

 the almost vertical position of the eyes : the formidable 

 nature of the teeth, which, in comparison to the size 

 of the fish, are excessively large, is another of the 

 many points of resemblance between Laurida and Squa- 

 lus, and this is accompanied by that destructive warfare 

 which each, in its way, carries on among other fishes. 

 Thus we see that the theory of analogy confirms our 

 disposition of these groups, and sanctions us in rejecting 

 several of the sub-genera of the Regne Animal. 



(221.) To give additional support to our present 

 arrangement of the foregoing fishes, we shall now com- 

 pare them with the primary divisions of the entire family 

 of Salmonidce, in which, it will be remembered, we also 

 bring in the herrings {ClupeincE), the pikes {Esocines^, 

 the snout-fish (^MormyrincE), and the carps (^Cyprina). 



