Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/322

 306 RIBBON FISH of the trade. Before the revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685) there were about 3,000 ribbon looms in Tours ; but that measure, which banished the Protestants, broke up the indus- try. The city of St. Etienne, the chief town in the department of Loire, is now the prin- cipal seat of the ribbon manufacture in the world. The annual consumption of silk there is about 435,000 kilogrammes, and the manu- factured product is worth about 65,000,000 francs. Four fifths of all the ribbons in France, and the finest and heaviest in the world, are made here, and about 28,000 workmen and 15,000 looms are employed. Basel in Switzer- land is the second place in importance for the manufacture of ribbons, and a large portion of the medium grades imported to the United States come from here. Most of the Basel rib- bons are plain or simply striped. In France and Switzerland all ribbons as well as dress silks are made on hand looms, which is the principal reason for the superiority in the French goods. It requires frequent manipula- tion in silk weaving to preserve a perfect even- ness of tension and disposition of the threads, and all power-woven silk fabrics are disposed to "cockle" or crimp in places. Crefeld in Rhenish Prussia is another important place of manufacture, but nearly all its ribbons are black and plain. The ribbon industry is spread through the country, and is divided into small establishments, averaging from 20 to 50 looms each, and power is sometimes employed. In England ribbons are mostly made at Coventry, and with power looms. The warp of the best ribbons is made from the best organzine, thrown from the best Italian and French raw silk. For inferior sorts, silk from China, Ja- pan, and Bengal is used, the last being the poorest. In the fancy ribbon called chine the watered effect is produced by an irregularity in the surface caused by passing two ribbons laid together between two cylinders, one of which is heated. Galloons, strong thick rib- bons, the tilling composed of cotton, are most- ly made in England on power looms. RIBBON FISH, the common name of several genera of acanthopterygian fishes of the family tceniida. They are characterized by a com- pressed, elongated, ensiform body, with very small or no scales ; the bones are of loose tex- ture ; the eyes large, and teeth small or none. To this ribbon-like body is attached a dorsal commencing close to or upon the head, and com- pletely furnished with membrane ; the caudal when present is distinct from the perpendicular fins, and in some is set on at a right angle, like a fan extended upward ; the ventrals are often wanting, or are placed beneath the pectorals. They are all marine species. Among the gen- era having a protractile mouth with a small aperture belongs ttylephorit* (Shaw), having neither teeth, scales, nor ventrals, and the cau- dal standing upward, its last ray continuous with the tail and produced into a filament long- er than the body. In trachypterut (Gouan) there are a few teeth, thoracic ventrals, a dor- sal the whole length of the body, and an erect caudal; the northern ribbon fish or vaagmeer (T. bogmarus, Val.), from the polar seas, attains a length of 3 or 4 ft., sometimes much more ; the skin is covered with a silvery envelope like the shining covering of the choroid of the fish's eye, consisting of minute needle-shaped crystals (see "Annals and Magazine of Nat- ural History," vol. iii., London, 1849); it looks like a silvery ribbon in the water ; the lateral line is armed with hooked scales. The T.fulx (Cuv.) of the Mediterranean has 168 rays on the dorsal and plumes of rays on the head and tail ; the color is brilliant silvery, with large, round, black spots. In the genus gymnetrut (Bloch) the ventrals are reduced to a single ray, very long and dilated at the end ; the cau- dal is very small and continuous with the dor- sal. Of the eight species, the best known is the ribbon fish of the Mediterranean ( G. gla- diu*, Val.), attaining a length of 6 or 8 ft. ; the rays of the dorsal over the head are elongated and curve backward like a crest ; the silvery skin is studded with smooth osseous warts, and the fins are rosy red ; like all the rest of the family, it is very easily broken ; it lives in still deep waters, and is rarely seen except when thrown ashore after storms in a mutilated Bibbon Flab (Gymnctnu Ilawkenii). condition. The 0. JlawTcenii (Bloch) is occa- sionally seen on the English coasts, and with its narrow, long, and shining body, and sinuous movements, has been the basis of more than one story of the sea serpent. In the genera with non-protractile mouth, with large gape and ascending lower jaw, belongs lophotes (Giorna) ; this has on the head a vertical cor- neous crest sustaining a strong spine, which is the first dorsal ray; the dorsal extends the whole length of the body and has numerous simple rays, the anal and caudal small, and the ventrals near the pectorals. The L. Cepedia- nus (Giorna) of the Mediterranean attains a length of more than 4 ft., and is rarely seen. In cepola (Linn.) the body is covered with small scales; there is a single row of teeth in each jaw ; the dorsal and anal are very long, and the caudal small. The red ribbon fish (0. rubescens, Linn.) occurs from the Mediterranean to the English coasts; it is about 18 in. long,