THE FISHES OF ALASKA. 231 



Family 8. ACIPENSERID/E. The Sturgeons. 

 13. Acipenser medirostris Ayres. Green Sturgeon. 



According to Mr. .1. F. Williams, of Chignik Bay, 2 green sturgeon were caught some yeai 

 1 1897) in the Copper River. Each was about 4 feet long. We were told of one seen in the Columbia 

 River which weighed 900 pounds. 



It is said that years ago San Francisco restaurants served sturgeon steaks ;i- sea bass or sole 



Family 9. CATOST()MID.£. The Suckers. 

 14. Catostomus catostomus (Forster). Long-nosed Sucker; Northern Sucker. 



Very abundant in Watson River, near Caribou, Yukon Territory, where 76 specimens 1 to 10.5 

 inches long were seined July 18 and 19. 



Head -1.2: depth 5.5; eye 6; snout 2.2; dorsal 10; anal 7; scales 20-110 to 120-15 to 17, 60 t< 65 

 in front of dorsal; length of pectoral 1.25 in head; ventral 1.6; height of dorsal 1.5. Color in life, 



mottled olive; belly somewhat silvery; head brassy; fins all dull orange, the dorsal darker al tip. 



Fig. 5. — Catostomus catostomus I Forster). 



Compared with specimens from Clear Creek, near Clearmont, Wyo., the Caribou specimens have 

 considerably smaller scales (the Wyoming specimens having only 90 to LOO in course of lateral line), 

 and more pointed head, with longer snout . 



This species lias a wider distribution than any other member of the family. It was described origi- 

 nally from the Hudson Hay region, and has since 1 n recorded from various localities from New England 



westward to the headwaters of the Missouri and the Columbia and northward to Alaska. It is doubtless 

 abundant in all suitable waters from the Hudson Hay region west and northwestward. At Great Slave 



Lake, on the Yukon, and elsewhere, it is a f 1 tish of considerable importance, especially to the Indians. 



An examination of numerous specimens in the present collection indicates that the spawning season at 

 Caribou is entirely over by July 19. 



Recorded from Nulato, Yukon River, as ' 'atostomus longirostris 1 Bean L882 1. Upper Kobuk Ki\ er 

 (Townsend 1SS7). Nulato and Andreafski, Yukon River, and streams (lowing into Kotzebue Sound 

 (Turner 1886). 



Cyprinus castostomus Forster, Philos. Trans, for 1773, I.V., streams about Hudson Bay. 



1 otostoimu longirostrtuii I.e Sueur, .tour. Ae. Nat. Sci. Philii. 1.S17, 102. Vermont. 



Catostomus hudsonius 1a' .Sueur. Jour. Ae. Nat. Sci. I'hilu. 1S17, 107, Vermont. Gunther, Cat., vn, 13, 1868. 



Catostomus forstt rianus Richardson, Franklin's Journal 1S23, 720. Lake Huron and Great Slave Lake. 



Catostomus aurora Agassiz, Lake Superior, 300, figs. 3 and 4, 1S50, The Pic, Lake Superior. 



Catostomus longirostris, Jordan, Bull. I". S. Nat. Mus.. xu, 175, 1878 (Nulato, Yukon River; St. Michael's, Alaska 



Catostomus nanomyzon Mather, Twelfth Kept. N. Y. Fish Conim. ls.M, 36, Big Moose Lake, Northern New York. 



Family 10. SYXAPHOBKAXCHID.i. 

 15. Histiobranchus bathybius (Giinther). 



One specimen reported by Dr. < iillierl from Bering Sea in 1895 at Albatross station, 3308. 



