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Show 1876.] MR. F. DAY ON THE FISHES OF YARKAND. 793 14. CIRRHINA GOHAMA. Cyprinus gohama, Ham. Buch. Fish. Ganges, pp. 346, 393. Barbus diplochilus, Heckel, Fisch. Kasch. p. 53, t. 10. f. I. Tylognathus barbatulus, Heckel, Hiigel's Reise, iv. p. 376. Gonorhynchus brevis, M'Clell. Ind. Cypr. p. 373, t. 43. f. 6. Crossocheilus gohama, Bleeker, Prod. Cypr. p. 110; Gunther, Cat. vii. p. 72. Crossocheilus rostratus, Gunther, I. c. Crossocheilus barbatulus, Gunther, /. c. B. iv., D. ^ , P. 15, V. 9, A. \, C. 19, L. 1. 38 A 0 . There are several specimens of this fish from the lake in Cashmere ; and, curiously enough, they show the links between H. B. and Heckel's species. All have a pair of rostral barbels and minute mandibular ones (C. barbatula). Some have 5£, some 4| rows between the lateral line and base of first dorsal ray. Others possess 3, 3|, and 4| rows between the lateral line and base of ventral fin. The proportions likewise vary with age and other causes. The localities this fish inhabits, and its mode of frequenting stones, very much resemble those of Discognathus lamta, H.B., whilst its jaws are wide (not deep) ; and its under surface is similarly flattened, but it has no labial sucker. Before describing the Loaches, I will give my reasons why it appears to me that genus Diplophysa, Kessler, may probably be a synonym of Nemacheilus. It is said to consist of " elongated fishes, strongly compressed posteriorly," which we perceive in Nemacheilus stoliczka and N. yar-kandensis; but in an equally elongated species, N. tenuis, the free portion of the tail is not compressed, but as wide as deep. "The eyes are surrounded with a fold of skin forming a lid." This is also perceived in specimens amongst the species I have enumerated from Yarkand; and I have likewise noted that some of the other fishes from the same cold region have folds of skin more or less covering the eyes. " Lips fleshy, the upper more or less denticulated, the inferior bilobed, and more or less papillated." I have figured the inferior surface of the head of all the Loaches ; and although some, as N. stoliczka and N. tenuis, have the lips as described by Kessler, the N. yarkandensis has not, whilst the three certainly cannot be separated into distinct genera. " Air-vessel in two parts, the anterior enclosed in a bony capsule, the posterior elongated and free in the abdominal cavity." This is the only portion of Kessler's definition not perceived in m y fish ; the air-vessel in all is enclosed in bone ; and I cannot resist suggesting a reexamination of Western Turkestan specimens. It would be very remarkable were the Nemacheili found in Europe, in fact throughout Asia, even in the Oxus, to have their air-vessels enclosed in bone, whereas in the river Hi going to Lake Balkash, and the river Urdjar falling into Lake Ala (Ala kul), they have the same organ |