210 
MALACOPTERYGII. — CYPRINID^. 
bones are set with stout teeth^ forming, as it I' 
were, a pair of jaws at the entrance of the gullet; I : 
these are opposed by a great flattened disk of i : 
stony hardness, placed above them, and lodged in 
a cavity or socket in the base of the skull. Be- 
tween these, the vegetable substances on which 
these fishes principally subsist, are. strongly 1 
ground down, before they are transmitted to the f 
stomach ; and thus compensation is given for the | 
entire absence of teeth in their more ordinary 
situation at the anterior orifice of the mouth. 
The scales in the Carps have their free margins 
rounded and entire, and their front, by which 
they are imbedded into the skin, cut into sinuo- 
sities, but not toothed. The accompanying en- 
graving represents scales selected from various 
parts of the Gold-fish, {Cyprinus auratus, Linn.) 
Figs, a, 6, and c, are scales from the lateral line, 
the first taken just behind the head, the second in 
the middle, and the third near the tail. The 
lower part in the figures is the free portion, which 
alone is visible in the fish, the other part being 
concealed by the three neighbouring scales that 
overlap it, above, in front, and below. The tube 
before referred to, (see page 7), is seen to per- 
vade each, running through a portion of it longitu- 
dinally, so that it opens posteriorly on the outer 
surface, and anteriorly on the inner or under sur- 
face of the scale. In the scales near the front of 
the line, the tube is large and prominent, (as in 
a,) while, in the very last scale at the opposite ex- 
tremity, it is merely a groove, d, is a scale from 
the back ; one from the middle of the belly, and 
/, one from the throat. The variety of form in 
the scales is illustrated by these figures, which 
