described by Bartram, Carver, Lewis and Clarke and other tra* 

 vellers. It is reasonable to suppose that several others have es. 

 capcd their notice, and my discoveries in the Ohio prove this 

 assertion. I calculate that we know at present about five hun- 

 dred species of North American fishes, while ten years ago we 

 hardly knew one hundred and twenty. Among that number a- 

 bout one half arc fresh water fishes, and one fourth at least be- 

 long to the waters of the western states; but, although there arc 

 fifty other species imperfectly known, I should not wander far 

 from reality if I should conjecture that, after all, we merely know 

 one third oi the real numbers, when we consider that the whole 

 of the Mexican Provinces is a blank in Ichthyology, as well as 

 California, the North West Coast, the Northern Lakes, and all 

 the immense bason of the Missouri and Mississippi, except the 

 eastern branch of the Ohio: all those regions having never been 

 explored by any real naturalists. From those who are actually 

 surveying the river Missouri much may be expected; but I ven- 

 ture to foretell that many of the fishes of the Ohio will be found 

 common to the greatest part of the streams communicating 

 with it, and therefore throughout the Mississippi and Missouri, 

 whence the ichthyology of the Ohio, will be a pretty accurate 

 specimen of the swimming tribes of all the western waters; 

 while in Mexico, the North West Coast, and in the basin of 

 the St. Lawrence or even in the Floridian waters, a total differ, 

 ence of inhabitants maybe detected: since I have already ascer 

 tained that out of one hundred species of Ohio fishes, there are 

 hardly two similar to those of the atlantic streams. 



I have in contemplation to visit many other western streams 

 and lakes, where I have no doubt to reap many plentiful har- 

 vests of other new animals; meantime communications on the 

 fishes of every western stream are solicited from those, who 

 may be able and willing to furnish them. 



It is probable that some of the fishes of the Mississippi 

 are anadromic or come annually from the gulf of Mexico to 

 spawn in that stream and its lower branches; but all the fishes 

 of the Ohio remain permanently in it, or at utmost travel down 

 the Mississippi during the whiter, although the greatest pro- 

 portion dwell during that season in the deep spots of the Ohio 



