324 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



maculosa Lesu. and Lota Brosrniana Storer, as these latter differ 

 among themselves ; and that they constitute three species or only one. 

 Here, for the first time, we have a critical and comparative examina- 

 tion, but it does not satisfy the writers who follow him, or they 

 seem, indeed, not to have known his account. 



As to Lota compressa Lesu., Mr. Thompson was not acquainted 

 with it, and, in his turn, he copies the description of Dr. Storer. 



The Natural History of the Fishes of New York appeared also in 

 1842. Lota maculosa is there inserted with a long list of synonyms, 

 but without comparative criticism. Then characters are noticed, to 

 which nobody had made allusion before. Such are : " Pectorals long, 

 pointed ; their tips reaching nearly to the base of the first dorsal " 

 "first dorsal small, subtriangular ; " and a figure to confirm them. 

 Dr. Dekay says, however, he is acquainted with Lota compressa only 

 through the descriptions of Lesueur and Storer, from whom he may 

 have borrowed his. But whence comes his figure, which exists 

 nowhere else, so far as I know ? Dr. Dekay describes and figures also 

 another species, which he considers as new, under the name of Lota 

 inornata from the Hudson River, and which Dr. Storer considers as 

 synonymous with his Lota Brosmiana, of New Hampshire.* Cer- 

 tainly, if this identity is real, it does not exist in the figures which 

 these two authors have published, nor even in their descriptions, since 

 the one, (Lota inornata Dekay,) has the upper jaw larger than 

 the lower, while in the other (Lota Brosmiana Storer) both jaws 

 are equal. And there are still other differences. 



In such a state of things, it was impossible for me to establish the syn- 

 onymy and to compare critically the species without original specimens 

 for comparison. Possessing myself only such specimens as I procured 

 at Lake Superior, I will describe, provisionally, that species under the 

 name of Lota maculosa, without synonymy, and I will limit myself 

 to indicating the analogies and the differences which I have observed, 

 I will not say in the published figures, but in the original descriptions 

 of the authors. The question, thus restored to its true position, may 

 in future lead to further progress. 



* Synops. N. Am. Fishes, p. 219. 



