410 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1773. 



north of the St. Lawrence, those west of the great lakes, with the tew who 

 inhabit the sea coasts of New England, and those again who live about the Ohio, 

 notwithstanding the respective distances between them, speak a language 

 radically the same, and can in general communicate their wants to one another; 

 while the six nations, who live in the midst of them, are incapable of con- 

 veying a single idea to their neighbours, nor can they pronounce a word of their 

 language with correctness. The letters m and p, which occur frequently in the 

 other languages, are not in theirs ; nor can they pronounce them but with the 

 utmost difficulty. There is indeed some difference of dialect among the six 

 nations themselves; but this is little more than what is found in all the European 

 states, 



X^'III, Of some curious Fishes, sent from Hudson's Bay. By Mr. J. Reinkold 



Forster, F. R. S. p. 149, 

 I'vThe governor and committee of the Hudson's Bay Committee presented the 

 B. s. with a choice collection of skins of quadrupeds, many fine birds, and 

 some fish, collected by their servants at the several ports in Hudson's Bay ; the 

 committee of the r. s., for examining and describing these curiosities, referred 

 them to Mr. F. for examination. And he here adds the following observations 

 on the fish from that place. 



The 4 kinds of Hudson's Bay fish are, the sturgeon, the burbot, the gwiniad, 

 and a new fish called the sucker at Hudson's Bay. The sturgeon was about 14 

 inches long, and therefore seems to be a young fish: as it is likewise observed 

 in the list written by the gentleman who sent this fish from- York fort. Its nose 

 is very long and slender, terminating in a point; the eyes are small; under the 

 projecting snout, before the mouth, are 4 beards or cirrhi, placed nearly in 

 the same line, and not by pairs as in some other species of sturgeon. The mouth 

 J3 beneath, nearly opposite the eyes, toothless, cartilaginous, semilunar when 

 in its natural position, but round when open; on each side are 2 nostrils. The 

 whole head is depressed, and very nearly quadrangular; the whole body penta- 

 gonal, and tapering towards the tail; the whole skin tough, covered with 5 rows of 

 uncinated scales; the dorsal series consists of 14 large roundish scales, and a 

 single one behind the dorsal fin; each of the lateral rows has 35 oblique scales; 

 in the 2 ventral rows are Q roundish strong scales between the pectoral and 

 ventral fins: one scale is behind the vent, and another behind the anal fin. 



The fish, according to this description, seems to come the nearest to that 

 species of sturgeon which he described in the Phil. Trans., vol. 57, [abridged 

 vol. xii.] in his Specimen Historiae Naturalis Volgensis, N° 10, under the name of 

 acipenser ruthenus major, rostro elongato acuminato, paululum supino, and 

 which the Russians call Sevruga. Kramer, in his Elenchus Vegetabilium et 



