CYPRINOIDE^E. 113 



hand, in shallow streams. It is a very soft watery fish, but devoid of any un- 

 pleasant flavour, and is considered to be one of the best in the country for making 

 soup. Like its congeners it is singularly tenacious of life, and may be frozen and 

 thawed again without being killed. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Drawn up from recent specimens at Cumberland-House, lat. 54°, March 10th, 1820. 



Form. — The head is smooth, flattened laterally and on the vertex, convex before the eyes, 

 with an obtuse snout : it increases in thickness, gradually, from the nose to the nape, which 

 is broader than the shoulders. The greatest girth of the body is about half way to the dor- 

 sal fin, from thence it tapers till it passes the anal fin, and the tail is nearly linear : the depth 

 of the body exceeds its thickness rather more than one half. The sides and back are some- 

 what flattened. The lateral line runs equidistant from the back and belly, straight till it 

 comes opposite to the anal fin, when it inclines upwards at a very obtuse angle, and passes 

 along the middle of the tail, giving that member a direction slightly different from that of the 

 body. Scales for the most part broadly oval, or nearly obicular, and of a medium size, being 

 one quarter of an inch in diameter. They are larger towards the tail, and smaller on the 

 belly, particularly between the pectorals. The uncovered portion of each scale is vertically 

 oval, and is marked with diverging lines corresponding to obscure crenatures on the edge. 



Head constituting one-fifth of the total length. The eyes are situated about one diameter 

 of their orbit distant from the upper part of the gill-opening, and twice as far from the tip of 

 the snout. The nostrils are placed immediately before the eyes ; the anterior larger opening 

 has a soft skinny lid which shuts it when thrown forwards, and when turned backwards closes 

 the posterior smaller opening. Gill-covers. — The operculum is thrice the size of the sub- 

 operculum ; their free edges unite into an even elliptical curve. The interoperculum has a 

 narrow upright limb connected to the whole anterior edge of the operculum. The preoper- 

 culum, somewhat crescentic in form, is broader but shorter than the interoperculum, being 

 included within its limbs. Various lines and tubercles, very evident on the head of the dried 

 specimen, are not perceptible in the recent fish, the whole head being covered with a thick, 

 smooth, mucous skin. The brain is protected by a piece of cartilage which, on maceration 

 or boiling, drops out, leaving a rectangular opening before the nape one inch long and a 

 quarter of an inch wide *. 



Mouth retractile, placed under the snout, and capable of being protruded a very little 

 beyond it. Lips attached to the intermaxillaries and lower jaw, studded with large soft 

 papillae, most conspicuous on the lower lip, which is much more developed than the upper 

 one, and expands into two pendulous flaps. The commissure of the closed lips is shaped like 

 a horse-shoe, but when the jaws are extended, the orifice of the mouth is nearly quadrangular, 

 and wide enough to admit the point of the fore-finger. There are no barbels. The palate 



* When the head is cooked the brain becomes visible through this opening, and is supposed, by the Indians, to be a 

 small frog, which resides within the head of the fiah. 



