227 
Ronpeter’s work was published thirty-three years prior to 
pu Viniarp’s map, and he gives a figure by which this fish 
can be recognized. Irrespective of this, the monks of St. Prex 
in the fourteenth century had neither a convent nor any of 
their order attached to the Chapter at Lusanne. 
In England it is found in the rivers and some lakes in the 
counties of Durham and Yorkshire, in the Trent and its 
affluents in Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire,* where the 
largest examples have also been obtained: in the great east fen 
in Lincolnshire, although it is not generally distributed over 
that county; it is also found in Cambridgeshire, and in some 
of the Norfolk rivers. The belief however is prevalent that 
the species is decreasing in numbers, and perhaps doomed to 
extinction. 
In Scotland the Burbot is unknown. In the Catalogue of 
the Fishes in the British Museum we find seven skins of Lota 
vulgaris thus recorded—“ adult: skins, Frith of Forth. From 
Dr. Parnewx’s collection.” Were this record unimpeachable it 
would conclusively prove their existence north of the Border ; 
but even at first sight it would seem strange that this fresh- 
water fish should be captured in the locality referred to, more 
especially as Dr. Parnextn himself does not allude to its 
existence there in his prize essay on the Fishes of the Frith of 
Forth. I find in the British Museum Registry that when Dr. 
Parnetu’s collection of 1636 specimens of fish obtained from 
all parts of the world, was recorded, no locality was given as to 
from whence these seven skins came. I conclude they were 
obtained from elsewhere, and are certainly unreliable as Scotch 
examples. Here however I would remark that it is placed 
among the Siluride by Arrepi, showing how minute or con- 
cealed the scaling is to have been overlooked by such an 
excellent Ichthyologist. This would lead us to consider whether 
others may not have been equally mistaken when examining 
* Prot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, 1686, alluded to its exist- 
ence, but even then it was rare; Mr. Hzatu observes that it is still found in 
the river Penk in that county. 
