VIVIPAROUS FISH. 109 
system of.cooking or culinary skill would ever 
convert it into a palatable fish. 
The geographical range of viviparous fish, as far 
as J have any opportunity of judging, is from the 
Bay of San Francisco to Sitka. It may perhaps 
(and I have but little doubt that it does) extend 
much farther south along the Mexican coast; but 
this I can only surmise, never having seen them 
beyond the limits above stated. It frequents all 
the bays and harbours on the east and west sides 
of Vancouver Island, and is equally abundant in 
the Gulf of Georgia and the Straits of Juan de 
Feuca; making its appearance about the same 
period, or perhaps somewhat earlier, in the va- 
rious inlets on the Oregon coast, from Cape Flat- 
tery to the Bay of San Francisco. It will be just 
as well perhaps, before I go into the subject of 
its specific characters and singular reproductive 
organs, I should mention how I first stumbled 
upon the fact of its being viviparous. 
Soon after I arrived at Vancouver Island, I at 
once set to work to investigate, as far as it lay in 
my power, the habits and periods of migration of 
the different species of fish periodically visiting 
the North-west coast. The sole means then at 
my disposal to obtain fish for examination, or as 
specimens to send home, was to employ Indians 
