O NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



being quite smooth, the sides almost parallel, and the base truncated and crenated in cor- 

 respondence with ten or eleven furrows which diverge from the centre like the sticks of a fan. 

 There are sixty scales on the lateral line, exclusive of about nine smaller ones, forming a con- 

 tinuation of the same row on the base of the caudal, and twenty-six in a vertical row beneath 

 the first dorsal, of which seven are above the row which forms the lateral line. A linear inch 

 measured along the sides includes five scales and a half. The scales on the gill-covers are a 

 little smaller than those on the body : those on the cheeks are still less, and the scales on the 

 caudal, and on the space before the ventrals, are the smallest of all. A scale taken from the 

 lateral line under the first dorsal is four and three-quarter lines wide and three and a half 

 lines long. The lateral line runs parallel to the curvature of the back and is distant from the 

 belly : it is marked by a tubular elevation on each scale. 



Colour. — Back and sides dark, with a faint longitudinal streak through the centre of each 

 row of scales. Belly yellowish white. 









Dimensions 













Of the prepared specimen. 











Inches. 



Lines. 





. 



nches. 



Lines 



Length 



from the tip of the upper-jaw to ex- 







Length 



of pectorals . . . . , 



2 



7 



tremity of caudal . 



17 



4* 



;> 



ventrals ..... 



2 



3 



» 



„ end of scales on ditto 



15 



2 



jj 



attachment of first dorsal . 



1 



8 



» 



„ end of anal fin 



11 



5 



» 



third or highest spine of ditto . 



1 



4 



» 



„ anus . . . 



9 



3 



» 



attachment of second dorsal . 



2 



6 



j> 



„ first spine of second dorsal 



8 



2 



» 



its middle soft rays . . . 



2 



3 



>> 



„ first spine of first dorsal 



5 



8* 



>> 



attachment of anal 



2 



2 



» 



„ tip of suboperculum 



4 



H 



?) 



its middle rays . 



2 







» 



„ end of scales on forehead 



2 



l 



)' 



lateral rays of caudal . . 



3 



3 



i> 



„ anterior margin of orbit . 



1 



3 



» 



between anal and base of caudal . 



3 







,» 



of intermaxillary . . . 



2 







!> 



from end of scales to tip of lateral 







»> 



labial . 



2 



3 



caudal rays ..... 



2 



8* 



Breadth of ditto at lower end 







9 



„ 



„ central ditto . 



2 



2 



Length 



of lower-jaw to its articulation 



3 



1 



Diameter of orbit ..... 







8 



[4.] 1. Labrax notatus. (Smith.) The Bar-fish, or Canadian Basse. 



Family, Percoideae. Genus, Labrax, Cuvier. 



Labrax notatus. Lieutenant-Colonel C. H. Smith. Mss. 



The genus Labrax, or Basse, belongs to the same section of Thoracic Per- 

 coideae with Perca, from which it is distinguished by scaly gill-covers that ter- 

 minate in a double spinous point, the want of denticulations on the sub-orbitars, 

 subopercula, and interopercula, but principally by parts of the tongue being rough 

 like a file with a crowd of extremely small teeth. Cuvier remarks, that the Basse 

 has so close an affinity to the genus Perca, that it might be termed Sea-perch with 

 more propriety than Serranus, which has much less resemblance to the perches in 



