THE FISHES OF ALASKA, 231 



Family 8. ACIPENSEK1I)/E. The Sturgeons. 

 13. Acipenser medirostris Ayres. Green Sturgeon. 



According to Mr. J. F. William.s, of Chiignik Bay, 2 green sturgeon were caught some years ago 

 (1897) in the Copper River. Eacli was al)out 4 feet long. We were told of one seen in tlie Cohunbia 

 Kiver which weighed 900 pounds. 



It is said that years ago San Francisco restaurants served sturgeon stealvs as sea bas.s or sole. 



Family g. CATOSTOMIU.€. The Suckers. 

 14. Catostomus catostomus (Forster). Long-nosed Slicker; Northern Sucker. 



Very abundant in Watson River, near Caribou, Yukon Ten-itory, where 76 specimens 4 1o 10.5 

 inches long were seined July 18 and 19. 



Head 4.2; depth 5.5; eye 6; snout 2.2; dorsal 10; anal 7; scales 20-110 to 120-15 to 17, (iO (o G5 

 in front of dorsal; length of pectoral 1.25 in head; ventral l.C; height of dorsal 1.5. Color in life, 

 mottled olive; belly somewhat silvery; head brassy; fins all dull orange, the dorsal darker at tip. 



Fig. 5. — Catostomus catostomus (Forster). 



Compared with specimens from Clear Creek, near Clearmont, Wyo., the Caribou specimens have 

 considerably smaller scales (the Wyoming specimens having only 90 to 100 in course of lateral line), 

 and more pointed head, with longer snout. 



This species has a wider distribution than any other member of the family. It was described origi- 

 nally from the Hudson Bay region, and has since been recorded from various localities from New England 

 westward to the headwaters of the Missouri and the Columbia and northward to Alaska. It is doubtless 

 abundant in all suitable waters from the Hudson Bay region west and northwestward. At Great Slave 

 Lake, on the Yukon, and elsewhere, it is a food fish of considerable importance, especially to the Indians. 

 An examination of numerous specimens in the present collection indicates that the spawning season at 

 Caribou is entirely over by July 19. 



Recorded from Nulato, Yukon River, as Catostomus longiroslris (Bean 1882). Upper Kobuk River 

 (Townsend 1887). Nulato and Andreafski, Yukon River, and streams flowing into Kotzebue Sound 

 (Turner 1886). 



Cy-prinus aislosfomus Forster, Philos. Trana. for 177."}, 155, streams about Hudson Bay. 



Catostomus longiTostrutn Le Sueur, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1S17. 102, Vermont. 



Catostomus hudsonius Le Sueur, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1817, 107, Vermont. Giinther, Cat., vn, 13, 1868. 



Catostomus forsteriunus Richardson, Franklin's Journal 1823, 720, Lake Huron and Great Slave Lake. 



Catostomus aurora .\gassiz, Lake Superior, 360, figs. 3 and 4, 18.50, The Pic, Lake Superior. 



Catostomus longirostris, Jordan, Bull. L'. S. Nat. Mus.. xn. 175, 1S78 (Nulato, Yukon River; St. Michael's, .\laska i. 



Catostomus nanomyzon Mather, Twelfth Rept. N. Y. Fish Comm. 1884, 3ti, Big Moose Lake, Northern New York. 



Family lo. SYNAPHOBRANCHII)^. 

 15. Histiobranclius bathybius (Giintheri. 

 One specimen reported by Dr. Gilbert from Bering Sea in 1895 at Albatross station, ,S30S. 



