Pee we )S Eee S08) OHLO: 
An Authenticated List, with Especial Reference to Occurrence 
and Distribution. 
INTRODUCTION. 
HE purpose of this work is to bring together the results of 
a the investigations on the fishes of Ohio, which have from 
time to time been made in various localities within the 
state, and to compile an authenticated list of the fishes of 
Ohio, which shall include only such species as have been defin- 
itely reported for the state by some collector. An attempt has 
also been made to show the distribution in the state, of each 
species, by citing all the records of occurrence which could be 
obtained. ‘The results show that many species are so widely dis- 
tributed and so abundant that they have been taken by every 
collector in the state ; some are widely distributed, but nowhere 
common ; others have been taken commonly in one or two locali- 
ties, but not elsewhere; and still others are so rare that only 
single individuals have been recorded. 
Before proceeding with the list it may be of interest to glance 
' at the work of some of the collectors of Ohio fishes, as shown by 
their publications. 
The work in the Ohio Valley was begun by C. S. Rafinesque, 
in a paper dated at Louisville, Kentucky, July 20, 1818. This 
paper was followed by a number of others in rapid succession, 
and in December, 1819, to November, 1820, Rafinesque pub- 
lished in a series of articles in the ‘‘ Western Review and Miscel- 
laneous Magazine,’’ his ‘‘ Ichthyologia Ohiensis,’’ which, as Dr. 
Call says, ‘‘ laid the literary foundation of American Ichthyologi- 
cal Science.’’ As Rafinesque’s paper covered the Ohio River 
System, it is not definitely known how many species he took 
within the limits of Ohio, but he mentions about twenty-five 
