22 THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA 



cive to the pleasure and advantage of sportsmen, for whose benefit I 

 especially write ; while the naturalist will find that, subject to these 

 divisions, he will recognise all his old acquaintances, and perhaps 

 encounter some new ones, under the generic and specific divisions and 

 definitions to which he has been accustomed. All the Game Fish of 

 this country belong to a few well-marked families ; and with the sole 

 exception of a few deep-sea fish, are included in two large classes 

 abdominal Malacopterygii, and Acanthoptery gii ; the first class being 

 those which have all the fin-rays soft and flexible ; and the second, 

 those which have a part of the fin-rays hard and spiny, as is the case 

 with the Pearch and the Bass', besides some others. 



The deep-sea fish, to which I have alluded as coming under a third 

 class, are the sub-brachial Ma/lacopterygii) which have a different 

 arrangement of the fins, although they have the soft and flexible fin- 

 rays in lieu of spines, as in the first class named. To this class belong 

 the Cod, Haddock, Whiting, and such other of the deep-sea fish, 

 especially Fiat-Fish, as can, by any extension of the term, be allowed 

 to figure as Game Fish ; for, under this head, I cannot by any means 

 include the Ray, the Skate, or the Lampreys, which come under the 

 same class with the Sharks, Chondropterygii, or cartilaginous fishes, 

 the skeletons of which are not, as in the Malacoptery gii or Acanthop- 

 terygii, composed of bone, but of cartilaginous or gristly matter. 

 The Eel, which is not a Game Fish, is of the class Malacopterygii, 

 but with a different arrangement of fins, which gives him the title of 

 Apodal. He hardly deserves notice at all, unless as an article of food, 

 and if mentioned, will be kept aloof from the others. 



Of these two great generic divisions, then, are all the fresh-water 

 fishes more or less distinct families ; and all the shoal-water sea-fishes 

 likewise, with which we have to do ; nor is there any line to be drawn 

 as regards the migratory or non-migratory fishes, some of these belong- 

 ing to each of these two great classes. 



It will be well to observe here, that I consider all those fish which 

 run up rivers and streams into the fresh-water for the purpose of 

 spawning, which pass a considerable portion of the year, and are 

 principally, if not wholly, taken in such water, as fresh-water fishes ; 

 although a resort to the salt-water is necessary to the reinvigoratiou 



