ABROSTOMUS UMBRATUS. 
brownish purple-red, and tinted with bright lemon-yellow. Eyes deep gall- 
stone-yellow shaded with brownish orange, a narrow ring around the pupil 
light gamboge-yellow. F p 
Form, &c -Figure subovate and prolonged ; the dorsal and abdominal 
ou ines slightly arched, the outlines near to caudal fin almost straight. Head 
slightly arched superiorly and rather depressed ; snout prominent, pulpy 
and consists of the covering of the maxillary bones ; mouth transverse ; gape 
moderate ; lips tumid and pulpy, as represented in Plate XII. fig. a ; nostrils 
about a line and a half in front of superior and anterior edge of orbits, the 
liindermost opening the largest ; cirri four, about 4 lines in length, two of 
them pendant from the front of the snout, and two from the angles of the 
mouth. Eyes moderate ; suboperculum narrow ; interoperculum small, and 
semilunar behind. Lateral line nearly straight, and extends from the middle 
of the scapular plate to the base of the caudal fin ; scales of several sizes, and 
varied as to shape ; on some parts the exposed portion of the scales is six- 
sided, in some four-sided, and in others subovate ; they are generally very 
small, considering the size of the fish, those on the under parts are much the 
smallest ; the scales, along which the lateral line extends, are irregularly five- 
sided, (vide Plate XII. fig. b,) and towards their tips finely and closely striated. 
Dorsal fin rather large, its base anteriorly nearer to the snout than to the base of 
caudal fin ; the base of the pectoral fins directly under the middle of dorsal 
n ; the anterior edge of base of anal fin about midway between pectoral and 
caudal fins ; the first and second rays of dorsal and anal, and the first ray of 
the ventral fins, hard, the rest soft and divided. Caudal fin deeply forked. 
Fin rays, D. 10. P.12. V. 10. A. 6. C. 21. 
This fish is found in slow running streams to the North of Orange River, and generally in 
pools with a considerable depth of water and whose bottom is thickly coated with mud. It 
never takes a bait; therefore specimens are only secured by dragging with nets in such rivers 
It is not regarded by the natives as eatable. 
