48 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF WHITEFISH {Conoonus nelsonii), 



FROM ALASKA. 



BY TAKL,ETOi> IB. BEAN, 



Cvrator of the Department of Fishes in the United States Katioval Museum. 



Coregonus nelsonii Beau. Htiuip-back whitefish. 



This ts|)ecie8 is known from Alaska only, occuniujj^ from the Bristol 

 Bay region northward to the extremity of the Territory. 



This whitefish, which appears to be still undescribed, has long been 

 known from Alaska, bnt it has been confounded with a Siberian spe- 

 cies, C. syrok, from which it is really very different. The Russian name 

 of the species is Korahati ; the Tiuneh tribes of the Yukon call it '■'■Kolo- 

 huh.'''' Mr. Dall, in the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 1870, ])age 38G, speaks of it as a common species, characterized by the 

 strongly arched back and broad tail. He says it is rather bony and 

 inferior in tlavpr, and tliat it is generally tised for dog-feed, except in 

 times of scarcity. 



This species is related to C. clupeiformis and C. lahradoricuH. From clu- 

 peiformis it may readily be distinguished by its greatly arched and 

 mucli compressed back. The body is oblong and comjjresscd ; the head 

 is one-fifth as long as the fish without the caudal; the maxilla extends 

 to the front margin of the eye, and is about one fourth as long a.s the 

 head ; the gill-rakers are only moderately long, the longest a little more 

 than one-half length of eye, and their number is about 26. The great- 

 est height of the body is a little more than one-fourth of the total 

 length ill the typical example, which is about 14.^ inches long to caudal 

 base. The adipose fin is large and scaled for nearly half its height. 

 The ventrals are a little nearer the tip of the snout than the root of the 

 caudal; they are about as long as the head without the snout. D. 12 ; 

 A. 12 ; scales 10—88—10. The type of the species is No. 29903, taken 

 at Nulato, Alaska, by Mr. E. W. Nelson, to whom the species is dedi- 

 cated in recognition of his important zoological researches in that Ter- 

 ritory. 



ON THE LITERATURE AND SYSTEMATIC RELATIONS OF THE 



SACCOPHARYNGOID FISHES. 



By TEIEODORE OIL.1^ aud JOHIV A. KVDER. 



About sixty years ago a most remarkable fish was first introduced 

 into scientific literature under the generic name Saccopliarynx. Other 

 examples have been found in the meanwhile, and yet until the present 

 the form has had no established place in the system. Notwithstanding 

 the alleged existence of two specimens in one of the richest ichthyolog- 

 ical collections extant, uiuler the custody of one who has i)rofessed to 

 give the most complete system of fishes, the type has been involve<l in 



