330 INDIAN CYPRINID^. PeEonomince. 



The stomach is a small tapering tube terminating gradually in an ex- 

 tremely lengthy canal, and instead of encircling the abdomen, the whole is 

 twisted spirally round the stomach. The contents of the canal is a green soft 

 vegetable substance like chopped cabbage. 



Its usual size is from twelve to four inches long ; the colour is green 

 above and silvery below. It is a beautiful fish, common in Bengal and Assam 

 as high as Sudyah, but being full of bones is little valued as an article of food. 

 If it be less useful in this respect than other Cirrhins, it is more serviceable 

 than we are aware of, in common with the numerous Gudgeons, in clearing the 

 indolent waters, of the plains from a redundancy of vegetation with which 

 they would be otherwise choked up. 



I am not sure that these small scaled species might not be formed into a 

 sub-genus with the Tench. 



III. — Cyprinus dyocheilus, J. M. 

 P. 37, f. 1. Goreah of the Assamese. 



It is without cirri, but the under jaw is identical with that of the Cirrhins, 

 while the snout and maxillary are covered with thick muscular cushions. 

 It is found in the clear active currents of the Bramaputra from Middle Assam 

 to the rapids at the extremity of the valley, but appears to be equally unknown 

 in mountain torrents, and sluggish rivers and jeels in the plains. The head is 

 elongated, and covered with thick integuments which envelope the operculum 

 and branchial rays; the eyes are small, and placed almost in the posterior 

 third of the head ; the depth of the body is equal to about a third of the 

 length ; forty-four scales are placed along the lateral line, and thirteen in 

 an oblique line from the base of the ventrals to the dorsum. The dorsal fin is 

 placed midway between the plane of the head, and that of the anal, and all 

 the fins but the dorsal are largely developed, and indicate considerable powers 

 of motion. The fin rays are, 



D.12:P.18: V.9:A.8:C.19. 



