OBSERVATIONS ON SOME NEW BRUNSWICK FISHES. 35 



lakes, but the cusk, as remarked above, is more or less flu- 

 viatile also in distribution; and, in the latter case, is held by 

 some naturalists to return periodically to the sea. Such, 

 however, is not a well established fact. On the lower St. 

 John it is quite common, and the facilities for reaching salt 

 water are excellent; yet numerous enquiries among the fisher- 

 men and fishery officers of the Bay of Fundy, and especially 

 St. John harbor, fail to show a single specimen ever taken 

 there in net or weir. Did the fish visit the sea, as claimed, 

 it seems incredible that no trace of its presence would be 

 detected in the maze of fish traps studding those waters. 

 That it makes limited migrations on the River St. John is 

 well known, but these are entirely restricted to a fresh water 

 range and due to a natural preference for cool, deep reaches, 

 modified by spawning habits. In fact, its movements are 

 similar to those made in lakes where it lives constantly, — 

 another presumptive proof of the lacustrine character of its 

 ancient distribution. 



The presence of the "cusk " in the Restigouche seems to 

 have been unnoticed till Mr. Brittain and the writer discovered 

 it there in 1888. In Lake Utopia, Charlotte County, it some- 

 times attains the length of four feet. It has never been 

 reported from Nova Scotia — a fact setting strongly against the 

 theory of an annual migration to the salt water. The " cusk " 

 is the only fresh-water species of the Gadidae, or cod family, 

 und in New Brunswick. 



The presence of these three forms — the togue, white-fish 

 and " cusk " — in the deep fluviatile and lacustrine waters of 

 the Restigouche and St. John, cannot be satisfactorily 

 accounted for by the interlacing of their smaller tributaries- 

 It seems more probable that their present range has been 

 determined by causes operating in remote times in which the 

 intermediate coast region did not participate, and by which 

 extensive lacustrine areas were drained, leaving these species 

 in their present widely separated localities, or obliging them 

 to adapt themselves to the conditions of new and often 

 unnatural habitats. 



