Remarks on the Natural History of Fishes. S49 
“ Echeneis remora,” were inhabitants of our waters, when not a 
doubt of the correctness of this compilation is expressed by an 
American ichthyologist ? 
I have studiously avoided noticing any of the numerous exag- 
gerated stories which are so liberally distributed throughout the 
pages before us, feeling they could not deceive the naturalist, to 
whom alone I would address myself; but what can be thought of 
the assertion on page 75, that the “ Astacus Bartonii”—little 
craw-fish, which measures from “the tip of the rostrum to the 
end of the tail two inches,” and the “ Astacus marinus” —our 
common lobster, are the same species! JI will make no comments 
upon this statement, but beg permission to extract a few lines 
from the page referred to. “On some of the highest points of 
the Green Mountains between Massachusetts and New York, in 
those small basins of water which are formed between different 
eminences, lobsters are not only numerous, but really and truly 
formed precisely like those of the ocean ; yet they rarely exceed 
two inches in length. The question at once arises, how came 
these animals in that locality, if the ova of the lobster were not 
conveyed there by some bird? The fresh water together with 
the climate of those high regions, has prevented the full devel- 
opment of these miniature lobsters, though in character, habit, 
and anatomical structure, there is the most perfect resemblance ; 
and were the ova from the family on the mountain Biacet under 
favorable circumstances in the borders of the sea, we have no 
doubt that the progeny would be as large in one or two genera- 
tions as any specimens which are exhibited from the ocean.” 
Such is the “ Natural History of the Fishes of Massachu- 
setts.” | have endeavored honestly to review it. Believing fully 
the remark of Babbage, “that the character of an observer, 
as of a woman, if doubted is destroyed,’* I have felt no pleasure 
in the progress of my examination ; the duty has been performed 
for this Society, that when ridiculed for the publication of one 
of its members, they may be able to say, we are aware that these 
errors exist ; they have been pointed out by him who felt called 
upon to do so. 
* « Reflections on the decline of Science in England, by C. Babbage.” p. 182. 
