Putnam.] 64 



been found gi'owing at Cape Breton, ^NTova Scotia, (speci- 

 mens of which he exhibited,) thus disproving the negative 

 arguments brought forward by him some time since to prove 

 that it was not indigenous in this country. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam remarked that all the fishes from the 

 Milwaukee River presented this evening by Mr. Dall, were 

 recognized by him, Avith perhaps one exception, as belonging 

 to the same species as those found in Lakes Superior and 

 Champlain ; indeed, of all the forty or fifty species found in 

 these Great Lakes only five or six were found in either, 

 which did not occur in all, proving that we have but a single 

 Ichthyological fauna through the whole region of the Great 

 Lakes, including Lake Champlain. Until the present season 

 he had thought that this " Great Lake fauna" had extended 

 to the larger lakes in Maine ; but, from his exploration of the 

 Richardson chain, he was now convinced that such was not 

 the case, as there v/ere but three or four of the fourteen spe- 

 cies of the Richardson Lakes, which were of the same species 

 as those of Lakes Champlain and Superior. The absence of 

 the Perch, Bream, Shiner, Pout, Pickerel and the Cyprino- 

 donts, in the Richardson Lakes, was a marked characteristic 

 of that fauna, distinguishing it from that of the Great Lakes. 



A partial exploration of Sebago Lake, in Maine, showed 

 that the fishes of that lake are of a difierent character from 

 those of the Richardson chain, for of the fourteen species col- 

 lected, the Chub and Red-fi]^ only, were common to the two 

 waters. In Lake Sebago, however, the fishes which have been 

 mentioned as wanting in the Richardson Lakes, were found in 

 abundance, with the exception of the Cyj^rinodonts. There 

 were also a Lota and a peculiar species of Salmo found in 

 Sebago, which were not found in the Richardson Lakes. As to 

 Lake Sebago we do not yet know enough to say whether the 

 fauna of this locality is identical with tliat of the Great Lakes 

 or of New England. Certainly there were several marked 

 differences between it and the New England fauna as now 

 generally understood. 



Dr. Pickering stated that he had passed the summer on the 

 Androscoggin River, twenty-five miles from Lake Umbagog, 

 the lowest of the Richardson Lakes, and that he had found 



