60 Storer^s Descriptions 



enveloped these bones. In the intestines were several pellets, 

 apparently of soft mud. 



I received a specimen of this species a year since, from a 

 pond in Alexandria, N. H. It was not, however, in a proper 

 state for description. There, as well as in Lake Winnipissi- 

 ogee, it is known by the common name of Cusk. As it 

 might readily be mistaken for that fish, by a cursory observer, 

 I have based my specific name upon that genus. 



I learn from Mr. Henry Bryant, of this Society, that the 

 inhabitants around Lake Winnipissiogee affirm that this fish 

 was originally taken from the sea and placed in that sheet of 

 water. I should doubt the correctness of these remarks, from 

 the circumstance, that this species having ever been consider- 

 ed a Cusk, an inhabitant of the sea, and the sea only, they 

 drew the inference that it must have been transferred ; not 

 considering that the Lake had an outlet, and that its waters 

 passed by a river of the same name into the Merrimack, and 

 thence directly to the sea : the dams and various other ob- 

 structions which have been thrown across the Merrimack 

 within a few years, would undoubtedly, at the present time, as 

 perfectly check their progress from the sea, as they are known 

 to have impeded the advance of the salmon ; but at an earlier 

 period, they did not exist — and for centuries, perhaps, this 

 species may have dwelt in the Lake. 



Two species only of Lota, the Ling and the Burbot, are 

 found among the Fishes of Great Britain, The latter '^ lives 

 permanently in fresh water, and prefers slow running rivers," 

 but it is found in only a few of the rivers. I know of but 

 two species besides that I have now described, which are 

 found in this country. One of them, the maculosa, first 

 observed by Le Sueur, in Lake Erie, is found, according to 

 Richardson, " in every river and lake from Canada to the 

 western extremity of the continent." Another, which he 

 calls cojnpressa, Le Sueur received from Northampton, on 

 the Connecticut river. A specimen of this latter species, from 

 the Ashuelot river, a branch of the Connecticut, I presented 

 to the Cabinet of this Society, several years since. 



There are many points of resemblance between this fish 



