CLAPJAS CAPENSIS. 



angles of the mouth thickest and longest, and in young specimens often 

 reach almost to the point of the pectoral spines. Nostrals small, ovate, 

 opening upwards, and furnished each with a slender cirrhus in front of its 

 anterior extremity. Eyes rather small, in the sides of the head, a little 

 posterior to the angle of the mouth, and open laterally. Pectoral fins small, 

 rounded at the apex, and in front armed with a strong depressed hony spine, 

 the anterior edge of which is finely serrated. Dorsal and anal fins long, low, 

 and throughout nearly of equal height. Ventral fins small, and oval at the 

 point. Caudal fin long, and its apex strongly lunate or semi-circular. 

 Lateral line about midway between the centre of the back and the belly, and 

 anteriorly, near its origin, slightly arched, elsewhere quite straight ; it termi- 

 nates at the base of the caudal fin, about midway between its upper and 

 under edges. 



B. ] ; D. 66; P. J ; V. 6 ; A. 51 ; C. 1 9. 



Length of the specimen described 25 inches ; the head, measuring to the 

 point of the bony projection on the nape, rather more than a fourth of the 

 whole length. 



This fish occurs in most of the rivers of the interior of South Africa, more particularly in such 

 as abound in deep pools, the walls of which are of clay or mud. It is common in the Orange 

 River and its tributaries, but has not yet, so far as I know, been taken in any of the rivers 

 more to the southward. The specimen from which the description is taken, was caught in a 

 large lake near to Port Natal, immediately to the eastward of the Umgeni river. It took the 

 bait with avidity, and many more might have been captured had I thought it necessary to 

 continue casting the hook. 



