- 
306 L. Agassiz on Fishes from Tennessee River. 
the most brilliant freshwater fishes in the world. Type of the 
genus: Liheostoma variatum, Kirtl. Several new species are 
mentioned in the note above. 
7. Boreosoma, Dekay.—Head short, rounded; mouth below 
the end of the snout, small, horizontal, slightly protractile. Op- 
ercular apparatus and cheeks scaly; neck scaleless. Membrane 
of the first dorsal reaching the base of the second, thongh the 
two fins are distinetly separated. Second dorsal much larger than 
the anal. Candal rounded. Type of the genus: Boleosoma 
tessellatum, Dekay. For references to other species, see “ Lake 
Superior,” page 299. . 
All the representatives of this family are confined, as far as we 
know, to the fresh waters of North America; not a single spe- 
cies having thus far been noticed either in Europe or Asia. ‘To 
this circumstance we must no doubt ascribe the total neglect of 
the genus Etheostoma of Rafinesque by European ichthyologists. 
The geuus Hyostoma is the only type of this family I am ac- 
quainted with from the southern bend of the Tennessee River. 
It is true, Dr. Storer has described two species of Etheostoma 
from the vicinity of Florence, Alabama, but they do not seem to 
occur farther east; at least I have found nothing to remind me of 
his species in the collection forwarded by Dr. Newman. 
It is a fact worthy of notice that not a single species of Gas- 
terosteus has as yet been discovered in the Mississippi River or 
its tributaries, or in any of the rivers emptying into the Gulf of 
Mexico. I have also searched in vain for them in the southern 
Atlantic states, though they are common in the northern states 
aud in the waters emptying into the St. Lawrence. . 
SCLENOIDS, Cuv.—In the old world no representative of this 
family is known to inhabit the fresh waters, whilst in North Amet- 
ica a remarkable species has been found in Lake Champlain, Lake 
Erie, Lake Ontario and the Ohio River, which truly belongs 
this family and has generaily been referred to the genus Corvina, 
under the name of Corvina Oseula. It should however be te- 
to examine the value of this genus, nor even to state on what 
