FRESH WATER FISHES. 138 



If one new fact can be added to the common stock 

 of truth, it matters not whether it regards the one 

 kind of science or another : — the accumulation, the 

 increase of the capital, is what concerns every indi- 

 vidual in the community. These remarks are made 

 with a view to exciting particular attention to the 

 study of the aquatic animals in the northern states. 

 Every man, whose eyes are constructed upon com- 

 mon principles, has discovered something in the 

 habits and character of the class of vertebrated an- 

 imals we are considering, which is of real conse- 

 quence, but unless more disposition is manifested 

 to concentrate observations, it will be a long while 

 before we shall have embodied, any correct views 

 of the reptiles or fishes of the New England 

 States. 



Strange as it may appear, the first land settled 

 by our European ancestors, as profusely peopled 

 with these tribes as any section of the American 

 Continent, is the least known to men of sci- 

 ence. 



FAMILY I. SALMONIDES. 



In this family, the body has scales ; — there 

 are tw^o dorsal fins, but the second is flexible, in 

 consequence of being destitute of bony spines. 



