of which are uninvestigated, and various small Cyprinidae, from the
Balkhash and Chu, so that the total number of species of Turkistan
fishes may exceed 50.
The species inserted in the list show the remarkable ichthyological
specialties of the region, and that there are in it at least two ichthyological
districts, their differences being clearly defined, although Carp
(Cyprinidae') predominate in both.
Almost all of the ti species of the mountain district (I) are peculiar
thereto ; the Balkhash Marinka, marked with an ? in the list, has not
been scientifically determined, arid may, on closer study, prove to be a
separate species, distributed in the lower parts of the Balkhash tributaries,
but not in the mountains.
Of the 22 species of the middle district (II) 10 were also found in
the lower district (III); but probably the Caspian Albumus (fasciatus
et ckalcoides), which was only found in the Zarafshan valley, also lives
in the lower district, so that the species peculiar to district II probably
consist of rather less than one-half of all its fauna.
Of the 18 species in the lower district (III) 7 or 8 only are peculiar
thereto, so that this district (III) is much less distinct in its fishes
from district II than are both (II and III) from the upper district (I).
Not a single species is known to be really common to districts I and
II, much less to I and III.
There have been found 26 species peculiar to Central A s ia ; all of
them were in the upper district; 14 out of 22 were in the middle district ';'
and 5 out of 18 in the lower district, and all of European genera—forms
like to Ponto-Caspian. Of the latter, 12 were actually found in the
lower district, and probably there are more ; 14 or 15 are mentioned
in the lis t; there were 8 in the middle district, but not one in the
upper (I).
There are three ichthyological faunas in the Turkistan region not
having any common species between them, and not corresponding with
the districts, as these have more or less a mixture of two or even of all
three different faunas.
A. Ancient Central Asian fauna—principally in the upper district.
B. New Central Asian fauna, of which the majority of species are in
the Middle district, the minority in the Lower. .
C. Ponto-Caspian, of which the majority of species are in the Lower
district, the minority in the Middle.
Although these three faunas do not possess any species in common,
the degree of their differences are far from uniform. The ancient
Central Asian may be considered as quite original, while the new
Central Asian is rather an altered part of the Ponto-Caspian fauna,
in which, for all its species, are found corresponding and closely-
related forrris, partly met with even in Turkistan waters, and unchanged
there.
This shows thrit the new Central Asian fauna was geologically
separated at a recent epoch, on the division of the former Aralo-
Caspian basin into the present waters, while the ancient Central Asian
fauna consists of the remnant which escaped, being driven by newer
fauna into the mountain streams...............The local varieties of the
Silurus glanis aralensis and Gobio flu v ia ttlis lepidolcemus show that
the evolution of a new Central Asian fauna from geographically separated
parts of the Ponto-Caspian still continues.
PISCES {Fishes).
By K . F. K e s s l e r .
T h is article is intended to serve as a guide to the further investigation of
the Ichthyological fauna of Turkistan. To this end are inserted [in the
original] concise descriptions of all the species of fishes thus far found
in the country, with the distinctive characters of the genera, families
and orders to which the species mentioned belong. The new species of
fishes collected by A. P. Fedchenko on his first journey to Turkistan,
and also the new species obtained in the same country by Severtsoff
and Kushakevitch, have already been described by me in an article
entitled “ Ichthyological Fauna of Turkistan,” which appeared, in the
Proceedings o f the Imperial Society o f Friends o f Natural History o f
Moscow, in 1872.
During his second' journey in Turkistan, Fedchenko found only four
new species : Aspius esocinus, Cobitis elegans, Salmo oxiatius, and
Scaphirhynchus Fedchenkoi (a detailed description of which also is
included in the above-mentioned article). But these species are very
interesting in many respects. Aspius esocinus by its elongated body and
flattened head constitutes a very remarkable form of the genus Aspius,
which up to the present has only had three representatives—one in S.E.’
Europe (A. rapax); another in W. Asia {A. vorax); and the third’ in
China (A. spilurus’). Salmo oxianus, discovered in the Kizil-su, in
the Alai, appears in Turkistan as the sole representative of the
numerous family of salmons. Scaphirhynchus Fedchenkoi [of which
the only other species of the same genus known to us (Scaph. rafi-
nesquii) belongs to North America] is of great importance, not only from
a zoological; but also from a biological point of view, on account of
the extreme smallness of its eyes and the rudimentary condition of its
air bladder.
The little fish described by me in an article on the “ Ichthyological
Fauna of Turkistan,” and called Schizothorax minutus, was ascertained
to be a young specimen of Schiz. eurystomus, as, however, had
been already supposed. In the last collection made by Fedchenko
there were, speaking generally, many young fishes of the genera
BiZfbus and Schzzotho'K&x, which enabled me to convince myself of
the fact that the rows of teeth, with which many species of these
genera are furnished, on the hinder side of the large bony ray of the
dorsal fin, are, among young fishes, at first very large and not numerous
but afterwards gradually increase in number and at the same timé
become comparatively smaller.
For the description of each species of fish the so-called characteristic
formula has been introduced by me ; i.e., a series of numbers
which indicate how many hard and soft rays are found in each of
the fins, and also how many scales are found on the lateral line how