Notes and Quertes 25 
tensive knowledge of the habits of our fishes, 
and a full appreciation of the value of protec- 
tion and propagation, and how best to promote 
them for the public good, not forgetting the 
needs and the modest demands of the ‘‘ Patient 
Craft,” of which Mr. Cheney is so prominent 
a member. 
If the Fish Commission of New York is to 
be thrown into the whirl of the political mill 
wheel, and we cannot help regretting that it 
seems likely to be, there is no man in the state 
better equipped for the position of Commis- 
sioner than A. N. Cheney, of Glens Falls, N.Y. 
About the Cusk. 
When you have a few moments to spare will 
you tell me in THE ANGLER about the ‘‘ Cusk.” 
HH, Sub: 
The saltwater cusk (Brosmius brosme) is 
purely a commercial fish, and as such is not 
abundant. Itisof the cod family, but can be 
readily distinguished from its congeners by 
the dorsal fin, which is single and continu- 
ous along the back until it joins the caudal. 
In appearance it resembles very much the old 
freshwater ‘‘ What is it?” of Nessmuk, who 
took his singular looking fishin a trout stream, 
pronouncing it, jocularly, to be across between 
an eel and a trout. We give a portrait of 
Nessmuk’s fish, which was found to be the 
freshwater burbot or cusk (Lota maculosa), of 
which more anon. The saltwater cusk is fond 
of the rocky ledges of deep water. It is ex- 
clusively a northern fish, not being found south 
of Cape Cod; it may be called a local fish, as 
it rarely changes from one locality to another. 
Professor Goode saysitis a very excellent fish, 
especially for boiling, but there is a very 
limited demand for it, and most of those taken 
are salted. 
But it is of the freshwater species of cusk 
that our correspondent is, doubtless, most de- 
sirous to acquire acquaintance. This fish is 
fairly buried under a load of popular nomen- 
clature. In Alaska it is known as ‘‘losh;” it 
is the ‘‘eel-pout”’ of Vermont; the ‘‘ dogfish” 
of Lake Erie; the ‘‘ chub-eel”’ of the Mohawk 
river (N. Y.); the “ling” of Lake Ontario; 
the ‘‘lawyer” of Lake Michigan, and the 
‘“‘lake-cusk’”’ and ‘fresh-water cod” of Lake 
Winnipiseogee. Professor Bean winds up the 
list with the name ‘‘burbot,” given to it in the 
state of New York by DeKay, and Dr. David 
S. Jordan puts on the capping of ‘‘ mother of 
Great Lake 
woodsman 
eels,” 
region. 
so called in the Upper 
We do not wonder at 
Nessmuk’s naive conjecture thatit was across 
between the eel and the trout, when its local 
"uakme 2He7 WO JOQUNG ‘ysND sazeEMYSel4 SY 

nomenclature suggest such great contrasts in 
the popular conceptions of its origin and 
habits. 
The burbot, by which name this fish should 
be known, for reasons tersely and forcibly 
given by Dr. Bean, is seldom found in the 
