A RARE FISH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 95, 15 January 1908, Page 6

A RARE FISH.

———:—. ■ (or TELfOBArH— SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) : , Christchurch, January 14. Mr. E. It. Waite, Curator of tho Canterbury Museum, describes in tho "Press" a trip lie inado tho other day to tho mouth of the Rakaia in search of a rare fish. " Tho object of my que?t," he writes, " was a little fresh water fish of which but two or thrgo examples were linowij, and was induced by Sir. Edgar Siead bringing mo a single specimen some time previously. So strong was the rusn of water over tho boulders that tho net could not be used against the stream," and therefore tho opposite" course was adopted. On successive hauls^of'tho hot sevqral/specimens of th'o'fish' we're secured. The fish was'first described by Dr. Haastin 1874, and ho was so impressed with tlib circumstances of tho condition' under which the little fisli lives that he named it .Gh'eiinarriclithys, which' ox': prgssps in'Grppk ' tho'fish of the ' torrent. Boing so' rare, it' has not received a popular iiamo, and I cannot therefore do l»tUfr\-uan christen" it 'Tprrcnt fish.'' Tlie original specimens were taken in the Otira, flowing westward. Wo now havo it from an eastern river, the Rakaia, so jt may confidently bo looked for in other snow-fed torrents.' It has a shafk-liko mouth', the upper jaw being 'much the'longer.' Tho'fish ranges from four to five inches in length when full grown, and has the under side remarkably fiat,' so that it is able to keep close' to tho bottom, heading up stream. The ventral or throat fins bra large and muscular, and are probably used for clasping stones. The tail is well developed, as would naturally bo expccted of a fish living in rushing waters. Tho general colour is olive, and tho hinder half of the body is ornamented with three V-like band? of dark brown. One of the nearest relatives to the torrent fish in New Zealand is the faly famed blue cod."