ESOCIN^. LEPISOSTEUS. ITS ANALOGIES. 



305 



two individuals lying dead upon the Isthmus of Messina. 

 The sub-genus Stomias is evidently of this type, but dif- 

 fers from it in having the dorsal fin situated as in all the 

 other pikes. Risso describes two species inhabiting the 

 Mediterranean, neither of which we had the good fortune 

 to meet with. 



(254.) The last genus which we bring within the con- 

 fines of this family is Lepisosteus* Lac. (fig. 67.) There 



can hardly be any doubt that this remarkable fish belongs 

 to the pikes, although Cuvier, with singular infelicity of 

 arrangement, places it immediately after Osteoglossum. 

 The only question seems to be as to its more immediate 

 allies, and the rank we should assign to it. In its form, 

 and in the disposition of its fins, it immediately reminds 

 us of the gar-fish ; but then the body, which is nearly cy- 

 lindrical, is entirely covered with diamond-shaped scales 

 as hard as stone : the edges, or outer rays, of all the fins 

 are defended with spine-like scales, quite analogous to the 

 spined fins of the Siluridce, while the muzzle, although 

 long, is broad and depressed : both jaws are internally 

 covered with numerous rasp-like teeth, with a row of 

 larger ones intermixed, and placed at their edges. There 

 is no gar-fish yet discovered having any thing hke this 

 structure, and we therefore view Lepisosteus as a pri- 

 mary rather than as a secondary type among the Esocince. 

 Rafinesque shortly describes several species as inhabit- 



* The figure given by Lacepede, and copied in the Ency. Brit. pi. 305. 

 fig. 4. is entirely erroneous ; for it is, by some strange mistake, turned upside 

 down, so that the pectoral and ventral fins seem to be a second and third 

 dorsal fins : that of Bloch, pi. 390., is a tolerably good representation. 



VOL. I. X 



