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gravel shores; the female makes a zigzag openhig in tlie gravel, 

 and lays her ova, and as she does so, partially covers tliem with 

 sand, whether purposely or not, I am unable to determine, and 

 the male makes his deposit on the gravel, instead of upon the 

 ova. It is quite possible that if ejected upon the ova it might be 

 too strong, and destroy them. As I have been enabled to dilute 

 the spermatic fluid of tlie frog five hundred to one, and found it 

 capable of impregnating the eggs of the female, and forming a 

 perfect tadpole, I have come to the conclusion, after making nu- 

 merous experiments, that no fish can be induced to eat anything 

 while spawning. 



The Muskellunge (Esox Estor). -The body of this fish is cylindrical, 

 scales small and tliin, covering partially even the cheeks; the 

 head is perfectly smooth, snout broad and depressed, moutli very 

 large, teeth are arranged in the anterior portion of the lower and 

 upper jaw, and acute teeth on the sides of the lower jaw; there 

 are likewise small teeth on the palatines and vomer. The color 

 of the back is quite dark, the sides pale, and covered with yellow 

 spots varying in size, and they not unfrequently become conflu- 

 ent. They inhabit the waters of Lake Huron, Lake Erie and 

 Champlain, where they are caught in seines, and considered an 

 admirable table fish. The male and female copulate and extrude 

 a certain number of ova, and this process is repeated until the 

 ova is disposed of. 



The Smelt {Osmerus epcrlanus) is a very small but most delicious 

 malacopterygious fish, much resembling, in many of its habits, 

 the salmon. It enjoys the salt water, particularly, in the vicinity 

 of the mouths of rivers. Its mouth is filled with long pointed 

 teeth, the eyes are large and body long. They spawn early in 

 April, and then return to the sea. Shoals of young fry are seen 

 leisurely swimming about the harbors from the Hudson river to 

 Labrador, during the early part of August. Fresh smelt may be 

 immediately known, from the fact that they smell precisely like 

 a cucumber when first taken from the water. It is green on the 

 back and silver on the sides; the scales are large, oval and con- 

 centrically striate. The head is more tlian one-fourth of the 

 entire length, smooth and sloping, nostrils large, contiguous and 



