262 



INDIAN CYPRINIDiE. 



still however the preponderance of species in favour of India is so remarkable, 

 that it is only by extending our consideration to other genera of the order 

 Malacopterygii ahdominales that we find the equilibrium restored in the 

 distribution of fresh-water fishes. Thus the SalmonidcB which form a large 

 proportion of that order in the rivers of both Europe and America, are 

 in India quite unknown, not one species of that extensive family having yet 

 been found in this country, where the blank appears to be filled up by the 

 excessive development of the Cyprinidce. 



54. One species of Tench,* four Leuciscs,f and one Gudgeon,^ are enu- 

 merated among the fossils of (Eningen by M. Agassiz, who also describes 

 two new genera ^ Rhodeus and Apius, nearly allied to, but distinct from 

 the Perilamps and Systoms. They are distinct from the first, by the dorsal 

 and ventral margins being equally arched, and the caudal and anal fins being 

 less developed ; and from the second, by the absence of spines in either of 

 the latter fins ; both belong however to Sarcohorince , and will serve to render 

 that group far more complete than it appeared to me to be before I saw 

 M. Agassiz's splendid work. Two fossil species of Cobitincs are also found in 

 the same locality, one of these, C. ceplialotus Agass. belongs to Schistura. 

 The marlstone in which these remains are found is justly considered by M. 

 Agassiz to be a lacustrine deposit, and supposed to be coeval with the molasse 

 of Switzerland and the sand stone of Fontainbleau, and consequently to cor- 

 respond with the miocene or early tertiory period. 



* Tinea leptosoma, Agass. Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles, vol. v. t. 51. 



+ Leuciscus papyraceus, Agass. V. t. 36. L,. leptus, Agass. V. t. 57- L. pusillus id. 1. c. 

 h. oeningensis id. and L. heterurus id. 1. c. 

 X Gobio analis, Agass. t. 57 



§ Rhodeus elongatus, Agass. t. 54. and It. latior id. 1. c. Of the genus Apius, M. Agassiz 

 describes A. gracilis, and A. brongiarti, V. t. 55. ; but the latter as well as Leuciscus papyraceus 

 are from the lignites of Menat. 



