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SCIEWCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 506. 



another good-sized salmonid (Cristivomer 

 namaycush) , and applied to them also the 

 name of trout, but often with a qualifying 

 prefix, as schoodic, or sebago trout, and 

 lake trout. The old specific name was thus 

 applied to representatives of three distinct 

 genera; but the offense was venial, as the 

 genera are closely related and belong to 

 the same family. But this was not the ease 

 with others. Settlers in troutless southern 

 states, bound to give the name to some fish, 

 gave it to the centrarchoid fishes generally 

 known as black-basses. This perversion 

 even found its way into scientific litera- 

 ture, for 'Citizen Bosc, ' French consul at 

 Charleston a century ago, sent specimens 

 to Paris, with the information that it was 

 called trout, and 'Citizen Laeepede' gave 

 it the specific name salmoides. Along the 

 southern coast, too, the name trout or sea 

 trout was given to sciasnoid fishes of the 

 genus Cynoscion. When the Americans 

 reached the Californian coast they found 

 certain fishes of a peculiar family (hexa- 

 grammids), not at all like trout in shape 

 or fins, but spotted, and these also they 

 called trout. Still another fish, found in 

 the Gila River, a slender large-mouthed 

 cyprinid, Gila gracilis, was called by early 

 explorers trout, and still bears the name. 



But this is not all, or the worst ! These 

 old names are not only widely scattered; 

 they may be more or less concentrated on 

 one fish. We need only take those already 

 considered as instances. 



Cod and trout are given to the same 

 hexagrammids along the Pacific coast. The 

 Hexagrammus decagrammus, for instance, 

 is called rock cod about Puget Sound, and 

 rock trout and sea trout at San Francisco. 

 Bass may also be given in some places, as 

 a somewhat related fish, less like a bass 

 (Seiastodes melanops), is called black-bass. 



Trout, bass and perch are also given to 

 the black-basses, as already indicated, in 

 various places in the southern states. 



Our forefathers likewise brought with 

 them fish-names which have become almost 

 obsolete in England, but which have en- 

 tered on a new life in the new land. One 

 such is alewife {Pomolohus pseudoharen- 

 gus), so familiar in connection with the 

 enormous schools of the clupeid, so called, 

 which enter the rivers of New England. 

 So entirely has the name been submerged 

 in England, so prominent has it become in 

 the United States, that it has been supposed 

 by some lexicographers to be of American 

 origin. For example, in that monument 

 of industry and erudition, 'A New Diction- 

 ary on Historical Principles [etc.], edited 

 by James A. H. Murray [LL.D., etc.], with 

 the assistance of many scholars and men 

 of science,' the etymology of alewife is 

 given in the following terms: "Corrupted 

 from 17th c. aloof e, taken by some to be an 

 American-Indian name ; according to others 

 a literal error for French alose, a shad. 

 Further investigation is required." (It 

 is defined 'An American fish [Clupea ser- 

 rata] closely allied to the herring.') Fur- 

 ther investigation has demonstrated that 

 the supposed etymology is based on errors 

 of several kinds. Too much space would 

 be required to give the details, and those 

 especially interested may find the record 

 (by the present writer) in that receptacle 

 of notes curious and philological entitled, 

 'Notes and Queries' (9th s., VIII., 451- 

 452) . In brief, the status is this : 



First, alewife is not only an old English 

 name, but still survives in southwestern 

 England, as attest the works of Couch 

 and Day on English fishes. Second, alose, 

 as such or with literal modifications, has 

 existed as an English word, in certain 

 localities, for centuries, although it was 

 doubtless derived from the French through 

 the Normans. In the same year, 1620, that 

 the 'Pilgrim Fathers' left Old England 

 and reached New England, one Venner 

 published the statement that 'The allowes 



