330 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



solar system, called successively, at different epochs, such animals into 

 existence under the different circumstances prevailing over various 

 parts of the globe, as would suit best this general plan, according to 

 which man was at last to be placed at the head of creation ? Let us 

 remember all this, and we have a voice uttering louder and louder 

 the cry which the external world equally proclaims, that there is a 

 Creator, an intelligent and wise Creator, an omnipotent Creator of all 

 that exists, has existed, and shall exist. 



To come back to the Salmonidse, I might say, that when properly 

 studied, there is not a species in nature, there is not a system of 

 organs in any given species, there is not a peculiarity in the details 

 of each of these systems, which does not lead to the same general 

 results, and which is not, on that account, equally worth our con- 

 sideration. 



A minute distinction between species is again, above all, the 

 foundation of our most extensive views of the whole, and of our 

 most sublime generalizations. The species of Salmonidge call partic- 

 ularly our attention from the minuteness of the characters upon 

 which their distinction rests. Their number in the north of this 

 continent is far greater than would be supposed, from the mere 

 investigation of those of the great lakes ; but I shall, for the present, 

 limit myself to these. 



Salmo fontinalis, Mitch. 



Salmo fontinalis 3Iitch. Tr. Lit. and Philos. Soc. N. Y. 1815, L, 

 ^2>b.— Richards. Fn. Bor. Amer. 1836, III., 176, PL 83, f. 1, and 

 PI. 87, f. ±—Storer Rep. 1839, p. lOi^.—Kirtl. Rep. Zool. Ohio, 

 p. 169 ; and Bost. Journ. N. H. 1843, IV., p. 305, PL 14, f. 2.— 

 Thomps. Hist. Verm. 1842, p. \A1.—Dekay N. Y. Fauna 1842, 

 p. 235, PL 38, f. 120.—Ayres Bost. Journ. N. H. 1843, IV., 

 ^n.—Storer Synop. 1846, p. 192.— Cuv. and Val. H. N. des 

 Poiss. 1848, XXI., 266. 



Salmo nigrescens Rafin. Ichth. Ohioens. 1820, p, 45. 



Baione fontinalis Dekay N. Y., Fn. 1842. p. 244, PL 20, f. 58. 



Though this species has been known for a long time and has 



