Remarks on the Natural History of Fishes. 349 



^'' Echends remora,''^ were inhabitants of our waters, when not a 

 doubt of the correctness of this compilation is expressed by an 

 American ichthyologist ? 



I have studiously avoided noticing any of the numerous exag- 

 gerated stories which are so liberally distributed throughout the 

 pages before us, feeling they could not deceive the naturalist, to 

 whom alone I would address myself; but what can be thought of 

 the assertion on page 75^ that the " Astacus Bartonii^^ — little 

 craw-fish, which measures from " the tip of the rostrum to the 

 end of the tail two inches," and the " Astacus marinus^^ — our 

 cmjimon lobster, are the same species ! I will make no comments 

 upon this statement, but beg permission to extract a few lines 

 from the page referred to. " On some of the highest points of 

 the Green Mountains between Massachusetts and New York, in 

 those small basins of water which are formed between different 

 eminences, lobsters are not only numerous, but really and truly 

 formed precisely like those of the ocean ; yet they rarely exceed 

 two inches in length. The question at once arises, how came 

 these animals in that locality, if the ova of the lobster were not 

 conveyed there by some bird ? The fresh water together with 

 the climate of those high regions, has prevented the full devel- 

 opment of these miniature lobsters, though in character, habit, 

 and anatomical structure, there is the most perfect resemblance ; 

 and were the ova from the family on the mountain placed under 

 favorable circumstances in the borders of the sea, we have no 

 doubt that the progeny would be as large in one or two genera- 

 tions as any specimens which are exhibited from the ocean." 



Such is the " Natural History of the Fishes of Massachu- 

 setts.''^ I have endeavored honestly to review it. Believing fully 

 the remark of Babbage, " that the character of an observer, 

 as of a woman, if doubted is destroyed,"* I have felt no pleasure 

 in the progress of my examination ; the duty has been performed 

 for this Society, that when ridiculed for the publication of one 

 of its members, they may be able to say, we are aware that these 

 errors exist ; they have been pointed out by him who felt called 

 upo7i to do so. 



* " Reflections on the decline of Science in England, by C. Babbage." p. 182. 



