ZOOLOGY. 727 



successful with ahyv. Other methods of capture are detailed by Mr. 

 Nabeshima. 



An important Arctic fish. — In 1879 Dr. Beau described, in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the U. S. National Museum (vol. n, pp. 358, 359), a new ge- 

 neric type of fishes from Alaska, under the name Dallia pectoralis. Al- 

 though au interest iug addition to the Arctic fauna, it was not regarded 

 as of sufficient importance to be especially referred to in an article for 

 popular use. It turns out, however, that the species is not only of 

 more than ordinary scientific interest, and that it raises a question of 

 taxonomy, but that it is an extensively distributed species, and of very 

 considerable economic value. Dr. Bean's specimens were obtained at 

 Saint Michael's, Alaska, but the fish has since been found in Siberia, and 

 some interesting data have been published respecting it. Professor Nor- 

 denskiold, in his "Voyage of the Vega," records it as having been ob- 

 tained at Yinretlen, in Northeastern Siberia (the Chukche Peninsula), 

 and at Port Clarence, in Alaska, on Bering Sea (pp. 442-444, 582). Pro- 

 fessor Kordenskiold first heard of it at Yinretlen, his winter quarters, in 

 1878-1879 ; the natives (Chukches) told him that " an exceedingly 

 delicious black fish was to be found in the fresh- water lagoon at Yinret- 

 len, which is wholly shut off from the sea, and in winter freezes to the 

 bottom." On the 8th of July, 1879, a fishing party set out for the 

 place, taking a net 9 meters long and 1 wide. A lively account is given 

 by Nordenskiold of the fishery. Suffice it to say that " hundreds " of the 

 Dallia were obtained. " The fish were transported in a dog-sledge to the 

 vessel, where part of them was placed in spirits for the zoologists, 

 and the rest fried, not without a protest from our old cook," says Nor- 

 denskiold, "who thought that the black, slimy fish looked remarkably 

 nasty and ugly. But the Chukches were right; it was a veritable deli- 

 cacy, in taste somewhat resembling eel, but finer and more fleshy. 

 These fish were besides as tough to kill as eels, for after lying an hour 

 and a half in the air, they swam, if replaced in the water, about as fast 

 as before. How this fish passes the winter is still more enigmatical 

 than the winter life of the insects, for tb.e lagoon has no outlet, and ap- 

 pears to freeze completely to the bottom. The mass of water which was 

 found in autumn in the lagoon, therefore, still lay there as an unmelted 

 layer of ice not yet broken up, which was covered with a stratum of 

 flood water several feet deep, by which the neighboring grassy plains 

 were inundated. It was in this flood water that the fishing took place." 

 It is stated by Professor Nordeuskiold that Professor Smitt, of Stock- 

 holm, regarded the Yinretlen fish as a distinct species, and has named 

 it Dallia delicatissima; but it has been since ascertained by Dr. Bean 

 that it is conspecific with the Dallia pectoralis. What manner of fish the 

 Dallia is remains to be shown. It has some resemblance externally to the 

 salt-water minnows or mummichogs, but more to the species of Umbra, 

 which are sometimes called in the United States mudfishes, and in Hun- 

 gary by a name equivalent to dogfish ; it is consequently figured in Nor- 



