48 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
R. br. 7 a D. ■ 1 1 , - ; A. J; P. 2 + 15 + l c ; V. C. x+15 
1 + 119 0 
+ x cl ; L. lat. circ. 90; Squ. lat. circ. 120. 
* Syn ■ Amphiprion americanus , Bloch, Syst. Iehth., edit. Schneider, 
p. 205, tab. 47 (A. australe). 
EpinepJielus oxygeneios , Id., ibid. p. 301 ; Jordan et Gilbert 
( Polyprion ), Syn. Fish. N. Amer., Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. 
N:r 16, p. 532. 
Polyprion cernium, Val., Mem. Mus. d’Hist. Nat., vol. XI, 
p. 265, tab. 17; v. Duben et Koren, Vet.-Akad. Hand]. 1844, 
p. 29; Nilss. Slcand. Fn., Fisk., p. 33; Gthr, Brit. Mus. 
Cat., Fish., I, p. 169; Day, Fish. G:t Brit., Irel., I, p. 17, 
tab. VI; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fn., Fisk., I, p. 71; Moreau, 
Hist. Nat. Poiss. Fr., vol. II, p. 349. 
The Stone-bass attains a length of over 6 feet. 
“The form of the body somewhat resembles that of the 
Tench,” says Nilsson; and the Stone-bass really does 
remind one of that fish, but perhaps not so much by 
its shape as by the large number and small size of its 
scales, as well as by its colouring, at least as it ap- 
pears when preserved in spirits in the museums. The 
most remarkable point, however, in the appearance of 
the Stone-bass is the roughness of its head. This is 
caused not only by the bony ridge on the gill-cover, 
which is the most important character of the genus 
Polyprion, but also by a number of similar structures 
on the occiput and forehead. On the neck there is a 
longitudinal, bony ridge, which in young specimens is 
serrated (‘like a segment of a circular saw’: Moreau), 
in older ones more or less smooth. In youth the epi- 
otic bones (ossa mastoidea) have also a similar appear- 
ance, and the pterotic bones (ossa squamosa) form a 
straight, horizontal, bony ridge on each side, thus form- 
ing the upper boundary of the cheeks behind the eyes. 
On each side of the supraorbital region is a triangular 
or semicircular patch of radiating lines of bone, which 
are spinous and converge to a centre, which touches 
that of another radiating system of flatter bony ridges, 
which form a fan-shaped figure and run towards the 
longitudinal ridge on the occiput which we have just 
mentioned. The strange appearance of the fish is fur- 
ther enhanced in a high degree by the extent of its 
scaly armour, which is continued over the insertions of 
the pectoral and caudal fins, and also over the bases 
of the anal fin and of the soft-rayed part of the dorsal. 
In the dorsal fin we see, as in the case of Acerina, that 
the last spinous ray is longer than the one next before 
it; but in the Stone-bass the spinous-rayed part is lower 
than the soft-rayed. The hind margin of the caudal 
fin is rounded, but in both the specimens which I have 
been enabled to examine by the liberality of the Copen- 
hagen Museum, the rays of this fin are broken off short. 
The colour of these specimens, which are preserved in 
spirits, is reddish brown, flame-coloured on the sides 
and almost white on the belly, v. Duben and Koren 
describe a freshly-caught specimen as being bluish gray 
on the back, while on the sides the colouring shades 
off into yellowish gray with a silver lustre, and on the 
belly becomes still lighter. All the fins were blue- 
black, with the exception of the ventrals, the rays of 
which were bluish white and the membrane blue-black. 
According to their description, the iris is silver and 
the pupil blue-black. 
The Stone-bass, to which Lilljeborg has given a 
Swedish name formed on the analogy of the English 
‘Wreck-fish’, a name due to the fact that it is often 
met with near drifting wreckage and timber, has been 
observed in the most distant parts of the ocean, both 
in the Atlantic and the Pacific Hemispheres. This 
circumstance seems to confirm Sv. Loven’s theory of 
the uniformity of the deep-sea fauna, unless Polyprion 
Knerii, described by Steindachner, be a species pecu- 
liar to the Pacific and Indian Oceans and there repre- 
sent the genus. In the depths of the Mediterranean it 
is common, and in Southern Europe it is highly esteemed 
on account of the delicacy and fine flavour of its flesh. 
Off the coast of Scandinavia it has been met with, in 
the month of July, 1843, when a specimen 300 mm. 
long was taken on a night-line at Solsvig, about 13 
miles from Bergen. Though a deep-sea fish, the Stone- 
bass sometimes comes to the surface, in pursuit of small 
fry or perhaps to spawn, and it is under these circum- 
stances that it is most often found near floating objects 
covered with barnacles ( Lepades ), which do not, how- 
ever, seem to form its food. 
a A specimen about 210 mm. long has 7 branchiostegal rays on the right side and 8 on the left. 
. „ ^ 10 11 
0 Sometimes D. or — . 
1+12 1+10 
c Or 2 + 14 + 1 or 2 + 15. 
d x + 14 + x according to v. Duben and Koren, 1. c. 
