Ctisnoid Acanthopteres. FISHES. Holooentkids. 
127 
spotted. The finest were named lanati (woolly), because 
their flesh rivalled wool in softness and whiteness. 
According to Columella, the cultivated taste of Marcius 
Philippus first taught the Romans to prize the Basse 
that were taken while exhausting their strength in 
stemming the current of the Tiber ; and Horace satiri- 
cally asks. Whence is it that your palate can distinguish 
between the Tiberine Basse, and those taken at sea? 
and why do you dislike the older fish of that kind, 
when you praise insanely an over-grown Surmullet? 
Fig. 32. 
Jew-iish (Glaucosoma hebraicum). 
To this he himself replies, that it is solely because the 
Basse is naturally of larger growth, and the Surmullet 
of less, and rarity adds to the value. 
The Basse was supposed by the ancient writers to 
be veiy careful of its safety. Aristotle calls it the 
most cunning of fishes ; and Ovid and Alllian say that 
when inclosed by nets, it will burrow in the sand, and 
allow them to pass over it. It will strike off a bait 
with its tail, or if caught by the hook, it will twist 
about so as to widen the wound, and suffer the barb to 
come out. It received its ancient name of Lupus, 
from its cunning, and that of Lahrax, from its voracity. 
The Keschr {hates nilotica) has been supposed to be 
the fish mentioned by Strabo as forming the object of 
worship at Latopolis, or Esne, in Egypt, but no repre- 
sentation of it has been found at the temple there ; and 
it is still doubtful whether modern ichthyologists have 
fixed the species correctly or not. The Syakoup, or 
Cockup {hates nohilis), is a large Indian fish, of whose 
air-bladder isinglass is made ; but the coats of the vessel 
are thin, and when dried do not exceed an ounce in 
weight. The Camuri {Centropomus undecimalis) is 
common on the warmer coasts of South America, 
where its roe is salted and dried in cakes, so as to 
form a caviare like that known in Italy and Sardinia 
by the name of Botargo, wdiich is mostly made of the 
eggs of mullets or of tunnies. 
As the rearing of sea-fish in fresh- water is a project 
of much utility, could it be extensively realized, the 
successful experiment of Mr. R. Poll of New York, 
described in the following extract from the ninth annual 
report of the Smithsonian Institution, is well worthy of 
notice : — “ I have succeeded in rearing the Striped 
Bass {Lahrax lineatus), known in our river as the 
Croton Bass, thus ; Male and female were placed in a 
small pond, the water of which was salted twice a- week, 
until the small fry appeared, when the salting ceased. 
Sixty days afterwards the old became excessively 
weak, and in ten days more died. The small fry of 
the Bass, and also of the Shad grew rapidly, and when 
six weeks old were placed in a larger pond, and their 
progeny became fresh-water fish ” (p. 322). 
FA.MILY XL— HOLOCENTRIDS. 
This is another group of Cuvier’s Percoids, which 
is distinguished from the rest by having more than 
sevmn branchiostegals, and upwards of five articulated 
rays in the ventrals, in addition to the spine. Its 
members are recognizable by their general aspect, 
their large strongly serrated scales, the existence of 
sharp furrows and streaks on the bones of the skull, 
face, or gill-covers, the serratui'es or spines of the 
opercular bones, and the general stoutness and acute- 
ness or angularity of the spinous fin-rays. The dorsals 
are single and even, or deeply notched between the 
spinous and articulated parts, or there are two con- 
tiguous dorsals. Several spines are incumbent on 
the bases of the caudal lobes above and below. The 
otolites or acoustic bones are large, and the air-bladder 
is connected with the otocrane or capsule of the in- 
ternal ear, through an ossicle and the tympanum or 
drum. The pancreatic caeca are numerous, being 
from eight to twenty, or more. The group displays the 
more prominent characters of the ctenoid Acanthopteres. 
It comprises the following genera — Iloloeentrum ; Rhynchic- 
thys; Myripristis ; Beryx; Anoplogaster (Gunther); Heteroph- 
thalmus (Bleeker) ; Hoplostelhus ; Trachichthys ; Polymixia 
(Lowe), with half the usual number of branchiostegals. 
Many of these have brilliant red and blue colours, or 
golden tints. None enter the British seas ; but they are 
ornaments of the intertropical seas, and some of them 
have been named “marine gold-fish,” others matejuelo, 
meaning a soldier armed cap a pie. One {Holocentrum 
longipinne) is called the Welshman in Jamaica, the 
Red-man at St. Thomas’, the Cardinal at St, 
Domingo, and the Squirrel in Carolina ; names spring- 
ing from their red tints of colour. 
