94 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[43.] 1. Blennius (Zoarces ?) polaris. (Sabine.) 



Family, GubioidesB. Genus, Blennius. Sub-genw;, Zoarces. Cuvier. 

 Blennius polaris. Sabine, App. Parry's First P'oy., p. ccxii. 



Ross. (Captain J. C.j Parry's Polar Foy., p. 200. 



Idem, App., liii. An. 1835. 



On Captain Parry's memorable expedition, which first explored the way into 

 the Polar Sea through Lancaster Sound, a blenny was found on the shore of North 

 Georgia, where it had been left by the tide. We subjoin Captain Sabine's account 

 of this individual, which is not sufficiently minute in the description of the teeth, 

 and some other particulars, to enable us to refer the species positively either to 

 Zoarces or to any of the sub-genera. In the want of scales it agrees with Zoarces. 



' f It bears a very near resemblance to the description and figure of B. viviparus in Mul- 

 ler's Zoologia Danica, but differs in the following particulars : the dorsal fin is united to the 

 anal and caudal : the pectoral is not orbicular, as its length exceeds twice its breadth : the 

 number of the rays fifteen. The teeth, though small, are sufficiently conspicuous to the 

 naked eye : the colour a yellowish ground, lighter under the belly, having eleven large saddle- 

 shaped, brown markings across its back ; the middle of these markings being much lighter 

 than the edges ; the whole back and sides have a marbled appearance ; the yellowish ground, 

 when viewed in a microscope, is thickly sprinkled with minute black specks. No scales were 

 discovered, but they may have possibly been removed with the sand which had adhered to 

 the mucous coating of the skin, and which was washed off. Length seven inches. The 

 upper jaw projects rather more than the plate of the B. viviparus in the Zool. Dan. Ven- 

 tral fins of two spines enclosed in a lax skin. This species is distinguished from the B. lum- 

 penus, by the union of the dorsal and caudal fins, and by the upper jaw being considerably 

 longer than the lower ; and from B. ocellatus, Mem. de Petersb., t. 3, pi. 8, f. 2, by the ven- 

 tral fins, which are wanting in the ocellatus, as well as by the absence of the spots on the 

 dorsal fin of the latter. 



" B. imberbis, pinnis anali, caudali, dorsalique unitis.'* — Sabine, I. c. 



Captain James C. Ross, on his recent expedition, took a specimen of this fish from the 

 stomach of a gadus callarias, which was caught on the west side of the peninsula of Boothia ; 

 and he also discovered it in the Spitsbergen seas, when accompanying Sir Edward Parry on 

 his most adventurous boat excursion over the ice. 



