OTHEE FISH AND GAJIE 289 



son by the settlers about the lake, who use them for 

 food ; and very good eating they are, too, being as 

 firm and flaky as cod. Mr. YarreU, in his British 

 Fishes, says that the flesh of the burbot "is white, 

 firm, and of good flavor, and by some considered su- 

 perior to that of the eel." In fact, this burbot is a 

 species of cod or ling, and from its liver may be ex- 

 tracted an oil similar to cod-liver oil. The habitants 

 call it lush, and, before I had obtained specimens for 

 examination and identification, frequently and errone- 

 ously described it to me as a catfish. I take their name 

 of the fish to be a mispronunciation of the French 

 loohe (losh), though that " most dainty fish," as "Wal- 

 ton calls the loach, neither belongs to the same family 

 as the burbat, nor yet has it the same peculiar ar- 

 rangement of fins. But while without the tapering, 

 eel-like form of the back part of the burbot's body, 

 the little loach " has a beard or wattles like a barbel," 

 and lives and gets its food close to the bottom of the 

 water. In these respects he is resembled by the burbot, 

 and herein it may be that the latter has received the 

 name by which he is known to the French-Canadians 

 of the Lake St. John country. In the greater depths 

 of the inland sea he often attains a length of three 

 feet, which much exceeds the size to which he grows 

 in English waters. The burbot of Lake St. John is 

 the ordinary JLota Americana — the Lota maculosa of 

 Le Sueur, which is found as far south as the Mississip- 

 pi, according to Mr. Seth Eugene Meek in his report 

 of 1889-90-91 upon the fishes of Iowa. It is common 

 in Lake Ontario, and is known in various localities as 

 ling, eel-pout, lake-lawyer, and fresh-water ousk. Ex- 



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