HABITS AND HAUNTS. > 189 



more curved, and less vertical, the operculum less high in pro- 

 portion to its length, and the sub-operculum more so. The snout 

 was sharper and longer, and the labial plates shallower in pro- 

 portion to their length. 



The branchiostegous rays were eight on one side, nine on the 

 other ; the dorsal fin-rays, thirteen ; the pectoral, seventeen ; the 

 ventral, eleven ; the anal, eleven ; and the caudal, twenty -two. 



I examined the mouth as minutely as I could without the aid 

 of a glass, and neither by my eye nor my finger could I detect 

 the vestige of a tooth on the maxillaries, intermaxillaries, tongue, 

 palate, or vomer, the latter parts being of a pearly whiteness, 

 and as smootb as glass. 



The pharyngeal bones were also toothless, but the branchial 

 arches were armed with erect rakers, precisely as described in 

 the last-named species. 



The colours of this fish were the most beautiful, lustrous, and 

 brilliant, that I ever witnessed — the back, of a rich iridescent 

 blue, changing to greenish; the sides, cheeks, and gill-covers, 

 glittering like mother-of-pearl, and the belly sparkling like 

 molten silver ; the fins, of a bluish green ; the caudal very 

 deeply forked ; the lateral line nearly straight. 



This exquisite and beautiful fish, so far as is known, is found 

 only in the Otsego Lake, the head waters of the Susquehana 

 River; but it would be very curious to compare it with the 

 so-called White Fish of Chatauque Lake, a locale very similar to 

 the Otsego, equally cut off from communication with other 

 waters, and at about an equal elevation above tide-water. I 

 greatly suspect that the Coregoni of these two mountain lochs 

 would prove identical. 



