Description of Fishes from Old Calabar. 



359 



feet at least ; how much more, there are no means of finding 

 out, for the submarine peat may have grown near to, or far 

 away from, the high-water level ; neither do we know how far 

 the submerged peat-banks extend beyond the level of low water. 



From the foregoing facts, it may be inferred that very soon 

 after the climate of the Hebrides became such as to admit of 

 the growth of vegetation, man emigrated to these shores, 

 bringing with him the arts of agriculture and navigation, and 

 a religion that induced him to honour the memory of his 

 illustrious dead. Since then the tanned vegetable mould has 

 accumulated to the height of at least five feet, and also since 

 man's advent here the entire land has sunk twelve feet or 

 more. These data may, by a more extended investigation, 

 form a measure to the time of his arrival ; at present I must 

 content myself with having pointed out the facts. 



IV. Description of several Fishes from Old Calabar. By John Cleland, 

 M.D., Glasgow. Communicated by William Turner, M.B. 



The specimens now exhibited were given me by our late lamented 

 Treasurer, Mr Oliphant, and it was his desire that they should be shown 

 to this Society. They come from Old Calabar. They are not in very 

 good preservation, but are sufficiently so for the determination of their 

 characters. Besides a small specimen of Chromis niloticus (Cuv.). there 

 is an Eleotris and four fishes of the family Siluroidei, none of which cor- 

 respond with species described in the work of Cuvier and Valenciennes, 

 or such other books as I have been able to consult. They may possibly be 

 mentioned in recent monographs which I have not had an opportunity of 

 seeing. 



1. The Eleotris presents well the characters of that genus, the head 

 being much depressed, the body slender, the eyes remote, the gape very 

 large for the size of the body, and the lower jaw prolonged beyond the 

 upper, so as to give the mouth an upward direction, which may probably 

 be looked on as convenient to a fish inhabiting the muddy parts of the 

 water, and preying upon animals swimming overhead. Also, it shows 

 well the appendage behind the vent and the ununited ventral fins, which 

 distinguish this genus from Gobius. It has no vomerine teeth ; its scales 

 are small ; its total length to the tip of the caudal fin is five inches. The 

 caudal fin is one inch long and rounded. 



The number of the fin rays is as follows : — first dorsal eight, second 

 dorsal ten, caudal thirty-two, anal nine, pectoral sixteen, ventral six. 



2. Of the Siluroid specimens one is a Synodontis, and corresponds 

 exactly with a specimen in the British Museum. I believe that it is the 

 Synodontis serratus, although the number of its fin rays agrees rather 

 with that attributed to S. arabi in the work of Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



The anterior dorsal fin has eight rays, the first of which is, as in all 

 the members of the genus, a long and strong slightly curved spine fixed 

 at right angles to the body. This spine is toothed on its posterior edge, 

 and towards the point anteriorly. 



The posterior or fatty dorsal fin, half an inch high and two inches long, 



VOL. II. 3 A 



