360 L. Agassiz on Fishes of the Tennessee River. 
SAUROIDS, Agass.—Before I began to collect the materials 
for a monograph of the genus Lepidosteus, I had no idea of the 
wide geographical range of this type in North America. Indeed 
our ichthyological works mention only Lake Huron, Lake Erie 
and Lake Champlain in the North, the Ohio and Mississippi in 
the West, and 8. Carolina and Florida in the South, as its home, 
and the whole number of species described, even including all 
those of Rafinesque without questioning the validity of any of 
them, does not exceed nine or ten. Yet I have now, in my own 
collection, not less than twenty-two well characterized species of 
the genus, and I have ascertained its existence in all the water 
systems of the South from Florida to Texas, in the Mississippi 
and all its larger tributaries up to the latitude of Lake Superior, 
where it does not however occur, in all the lower great Canadian 
Lakes, and in the St. Lawrence. Also in those river and Lakes 
of western New York which empty into the waters of the St. 
awrence ; in those of western Pennsylvania emptying into the 
Ohio, and in all the Atlantic rivers, from the Chesapeake Bay to 
Florida; leaving only the New England States East of Lake 
Champlain without any of its representatives. Poey describes 
also one species from Cuba. It seems however to be wanting 
west of the Rocky Mountains and in Central America. The 
species sent me by Dr. Newman from Huntsville, agrees with 
Rafinesque’s : 
Lepidosteus platostomus.—It differs however from the species 
described under the same name by DeKay from Florida, the 
original specimen of which I have examined myself. Its name 
at Huntsville is Gar. 
species as L. huronensis; this differs however widely from the 
southern ZL. osseus and from Rafinesque’s L. oryurus from ? ; 
Ohio River. I shall take an early opportunity of describing all 
the species I know of this genus and settling as far as possible 
their complicated synonymy. 
