SPECIES OP CAT-FISH. 195 



some places it is esteemed a great delicacy. All the Cat-fish are 

 greedy biters, and will take almost any animal substance as a 

 bait. After being hooked, however, although they are powerful 

 fish, and pull hard for a while, it is yet a dead lug entirely: 

 unlike the lively and fierce resistance of the Trouts and 

 Perches ; and they aff'ord in truth very little real sport to the 

 angler. 



Seven species of this fish are quoted by M. Le Sueur as 

 belonging to Lakes Erie, Ontario, and their tributary waters, 

 besides many other varieties in the southern and western waters, 

 where it grows to a yet more enormous size. 



There is, however, so little difference either in the appearance 

 or habits of this filthy, mud -loving and hideous fish, that the 

 description of one species must serve for all. 



The cut at the head of this article represents the great Cat- 

 fish, or Huron Pimelode. 



The [Silurus Glanis), Sly Silurus, or Sheat-fish, is the largest 

 fresh-water fish of Europe, growing, it is said, to six feet in 

 length, and attaining to three hundred weight. 



Dr. Smith includes this species of Silurus in the fishes of 

 Massachusetts, and Dr. Flint attributes it to the Ohio and 

 Mississippi, both evidently confounding it with the various 

 indigenous Pimelodes, which it greatly resembles. It differs 

 from the American Pimelodes in having the anal fin extremely 

 long, extending almost the whole distance from the extremity 

 of the ventral to the origin of the caudal fin. 



t) ^ 



