SPINY-FINNED GROUP. 
j i ° 
ing that the first example was taken by the captain of a fishing-smack when 
working cod-lines in deep water, goes on to observe that the tile-fish was one of 
the most brilliantly-coloured fishes out of the tropics, and remarkable for the 
presence of a soft dorsal fin, resembling that of the salmon, which is placed on 
the neck in advance of the regular dorsal fin instead of behind it, as in the salmon 
family. In the U.S. Fishing Report of 1881, it is stated that “there is every 
reason to believe that the tile-fish will rank among the most important food-fishes 
of the United States.” The fish would weigh from 10 lbs. to 40 lbs., and its 
abundance was remarkable. It took the hook readily, and in an hour or two 
a catch of 250 lbs. of tile-fish was not uncommon. As the lines used were the 
same as for cod-fishing, no change of apparatus was necessary. It was then 
believed that this new fish would singularly increase the food-supply of the North 
TILE-FISH. 
Atlantic Coast; but just when American fishermen were beginning to apply their 
skill to the catching of tile-fish off the New England coast, the Lopholatilus 
disappeared. 
Other Groups. 
Two other subfamilies, distinguished by the lateral line being 
interrupted or stopping short of the caudal fin, are severally typified 
by the genera Pseudochromis and Notothenia ; the former subfamily having the 
dorsal fin continuous, while in the latter it is divided. Pseudochromis and certain 
other genera include tropical fish frequenting coral-reefs or coral-coasts, and 
taking their name from their superficial resemblance to the members of a very 
different family—the Chromididce. They differ from all the allied forms in having 
a bony stay connecting the preopercular bone with the infraorbital ring. 
Soft-Spines and Feog-Fishes, —Families Ma la cant hid n: and B ATRAC HID AS. 
Of these two unimportant families, the first is represented solely by the soft- 
spines ( Malacanthus ), and differs from the preceding family by having only ten 
