FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 373 



We must, however, remark that the figures which they give of it are 

 rather incomplete. The oldest is still the best for the general out- 

 lines, and the species is there more easily recognized than .by that of 

 the Fauna of New York, where the fins are too stiff and too recti- 

 linear, and the scales drawn in an inverse direction from what they 

 are in nature, the posterior margin being turned towards the head. 



The formula for the fin rays is as follows : 



Br. 3; D. II. 9; A. II., 9 ; C. 4, I. 9, 8,1., 4; V. 8 ; P. 15. 



A very slight difference in the dorsal and anal may be noticed, 

 but we consider it of little importance here. Their rays bifurcate 

 to the third degree, with a few unsymmetrical indications of a 

 three-fold bifurcation on one of the rays of the anal, and on some of 

 the central ones of the lobes of the caudal. The rays of the pecto- 

 rals subdivide only once. As for the branchiostegal rays, we find 

 only three of them, though DeWitt Clinton has counted four ; per- 

 haps he counted the suboperculum. Dr. Dekay does not mention 

 them. There is also something to be corrected respecting the lat- 

 eral line ; the former says it is obsolete ; the latter describes it 

 as straight. On the individuals which we have had under notice, 

 it is almost median ; arising from the upper angle of the opercu- 

 lum, it is deflected upon the abdomen to rise again gradually beyond 

 the dorsal fin, and finally to extend straight towards the extremity 

 of the tail. 



From Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Very common about 

 Fort William and the Pic. 



This is another form of the group of Leucisci, of which there is 

 no representative in Europe. It is likely to become the type of a 

 distinct genus ; for it has many striking peculiarities. I have, how- 

 ever, refrained from establishing it until I shall have ascertained 

 whether the specimens found in different localities are specifically 

 identical or not. 



Such a critical revision of the fishes of Lake Superior, and the 

 other great Canadian lakes, was the first necessary step in the inves- 

 tigation I am tracing, in order to ascertain the natural primitive 

 relations between them and the region which they inhabit. Before 



