FISHES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



already begins a discrepancy in the characters assigned to this spe- 

 cies. Lesueur says, '•'■ jaws eq\tal,^^ and Mitchill, " upper jaiv long- 

 est, and receiving the lower.'^ He adds : " The skin is smooth arid 

 scalelessJ' The smallness of the scales must have misled him ; if 

 not, his Gradus lacustris is not the Gradus maculosus of Lesueur. 

 Dr. Richardson mentions the Gadus Lota in his Journal of the Expedi- 

 tion of Franklin, published in 1823 ; and in 1836, when publishing 

 the Fauna Boreali-Americana, he describes, under the name of Lota 

 maculosa, a species from Pine -Island-Lake, which must be the same 

 he had seen in 1823, since he gives the same synonyms. The 

 description is considerably detailed, but it contains no criterion 

 establishing the perfect identity with the species of Lesueur. He 

 agrees on the point that the jaws are of equal length, but as 

 for the lateral line, Lesueur had said, " in the middle of the bodg,'^ 

 and Richardson says, " nearer to the back than to the belly, and is 

 slightly arched till it passes the first third of the anal fin, after 

 which it takes a straight course^'' etc. 



In 1839 Dr. Storer* gave a short description of the Gradus com- 

 pressus Lesu., which he places, however, in the genus Lota, without 

 trying to establish a connection between his description and that of 

 Lesueur. 



In 1842 Dr. J. P. Kirtlandf copies the description of Gr. maculosus 

 of Lesueur, and cites Richardson in the synonyms. He adds a fig- 

 ure. In the same year, 1812, .Rev. Z. Thompson^ describes a species 

 from Lake Champlain, comparing it with the description of Gr. macu- 

 losus Lesu., and though retaining for it this name, he remarks certain 

 differences which strike him. Thus, the upper jaw is uniformly longer, 

 and the lateral line, " anterior to the vent, is fnuch nearer the back 

 than the belly.^^ In this sense, the lateral line agrees with the 

 description of Dr. Richardson. Mr. Thompson finds much resem- 

 blance between his fish and that described by Dr. Storer under the 

 name of Lota Brosmiayia, but it differs from it, he says, " in having 

 the upper jaiv longest, iti having the snout more pointed and less 

 orbicular." He finds that his fish differs as much from the Lota 



* Rep. etc., p. 13i. f Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. IV., 24, PI. 3. f. 1. 



J History of Vermont, p. 146. 



