and its Tributaries. 341 
latter. The dorsal and anal fins of the one are subconical and 
acutish, and rounded and more obtuse in the other. 
- The coloring of the two affords a very evident distinction. 
The ground color, on the sides of the present species, is al- 
ways light, a mixture of golden and silvery lustre, maculated 
with dark, oblong or roundish spots ; while, on the other, the 
ground coloring consists of dark reticulations, relieved with 
irregular yellowish spots, not placed in rows. Our fishermen 
say that “the muskallonge is spotted with black, and the pike 
with yellow.” 
A comparison of the figures of the two will fully illustrate 
these specific distinctions. Others can be discovered in the 
form and size of the teeth, and bones of the head, particularly 
the jaws. 
Lesueur’s remarks, in regard to the emarginate scales, 
Presenting the appearance of the letter V, are more applicable 
to the E. reticulatus than to this species. Is it not probable 
that he only knew the muskallonge by reputation, and that he 
made out his description from a pike, supposing it to be differ- 
ent from the species he had met with in the Atlantic States ? 
The muskallonge confines itself exclusively to the deep 
Waters of the. Lake, except for a few days in the spring, when 
it runs into the mouths of the rivers to spawn. The pike is 
Common, at all seasons, in deep and still waters of the rivers 
d Lake. 
Epicures consider it one of the best fishes of the west. 
Since the first settlements of the shores of Lake Erie, its 
numbers have very sensibly diminished, and it now is rather 
Scarcer at its proper season. We saw one, taken near the 
“leveland Harbor, in April last, that measured over five feet 
i length, and weighed more than sixty pounds. Specimens 
= occasionally affected with tenia, filiaria, and other parasitic 
orms. . : 
