Notice of a New Ganoid Fish. 
273 
(2 ) Notice of a New Genus of Ganoid Fish allied io the Gtnus 
Polypterus i^GeoiF.-St-Hillaire), recently received from Old Calabar. 
By John Alexander Smith, M.D, (Specimens exhibited.) 
The two specimens of fish exhibited, were sent to me 
with the Tetraodon just described, and some other zoological 
specimens, by the Kev. Alexander Kobb, of the Calabar 
Mission ; and in a letter, dated 28th October 1864, in which 
he announces the sending of the package, he states, There 
are two or three small eel-like fishes." I have written to 
Mr Robb for more information, and hope to be able to de- 
scribe these curious fishes more fully before long. The}^ have 
been caught, I believe, in the fresh water of the river near 
Creek Town, Old Calabar, where the Eev. Mr Eobb resides ; 
and they probably live at the bottom of the river, in the soft 
mud ; from both the specimens exhibited being pierced im- 
mediately behind the head, they seem to have been strung 
on a stick by the native who had captured them, and were 
doubtless intended to have formed part of his next meal, as 
Dr Hewan informs me the natives have a practice of this 
kind, and a taste for a varied diet, eating all sorts of fish 
however small. 
The fish belong to the interesting Order of Ganoid fishes, 
and appear to be closely allied to the Genus Polypterus of 
Geoffroy-St-Hillaire, which, with the Genera, or rather 
Families of Lepidosteus and Amia, include the living repre- 
sentatives of the numerous fossil fish, the ganoids of the 
earlier geological epochs. 
The species of Lepidosteus or bony pikes, and Amia, are 
found in the fresh waters, the rivers, and lakes of North 
and South America. Of the Genus Polypterus, two species 
were referred to by Agassiz in his " Poissons Fossiles he 
fully describes the P. bichir, the Bicliir of the Nile, and 
notices the P. senegalus, from the river Senegal. Since 
the publication of Agassiz's great work several other species 
of this genus have been discovered : one, the P. End- 
licheri, in the White Nile, described in 1849 ; and another, in 
1857, from the rivers at Cape Palmas, on the western coast 
