330 Storer on the 
the two seasons that my attention has been directed 
to our fishes, I have not been able to procure a single 
specimen. Dr. Yale writes me in October, 1837 ;— 
“The squeteague has deserted these waters, there 
has not been one taken for three or four years about 
here; they left about the time that the blue fish 
came." Hon. Hezekiah Barnard, of Nantucket, in 
a letter to me, dated July, 1838, remarks ;—‘‘ The 
squeteague, or weak fish, have disappeared since the 
return of the blue fish, who are their avowed enemy. 
I have conversed with our fishermen, they say they 
have scarce seen one for six years.” Thus it ap- 
pears, that while the blue fish was absent, they were 
abundant—and at the appearance of the blue fish, 
they left us. 
Mitchell’s description of the “Labrus squeteague" 
is as follows :—“ Size commonly from a foot to fif- 
teen inches, but often grows much larger. I weighed 
one, that measured twenty-seven inches in length 
by seven in depth, and found him heavier than six 
pounds. He never goes into fresh streams or ponds, 
but, within the limits of the salt water, is taken in 
almost all the places where rock-fish is caught: 
The weak fish is so much the companion of the 
basse, that I once gave him the specific name of 
comes. Head and back brown, with frequently a 
tinge of greenish. The spaces towards the sides 
faintly silvery, with dusky specks. These gradu- 
ally disappear on the sides, until, on descending to 
the belly, a clear white prevails from the chin to the _ 
tail. Mouth wide. Jaws toothed, and, in the upper 
mandible one, two, or three teeth in front, larger and 
aa. 
