FRESH-WATER FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. 105 
The .ApArodederus Sayanus, once abundant in a clear 
pebbly-bedded creek, is now occasionally found in deep 
waters with little currents, where the banks overhang suffi- 
ciently to give them a safe retreat. 
The Bill-fish (Belone longirostris), is not sufficiently abund- 
ant in the river, to give one good opportunities of thoroughly 
studying it. During the summer, or autumn, numbers of 
them occasionally enter the Delaware and Rariton Canal at 
Bordentown, New Jersey, and thence come into the canal 
basins. When the water is let out of the canal in De- 
cember these fish are sometimes caught in the basins which 
are a little deeper than the canal. In these puddles, if not 
discovered by boys, they will remain during the winter, half 
buried in the mud, and semi-torpid. On the opening of 
navigation in March they seem to be wholly revivified, and 
frequent this artificial water-course during much of the sum- 
mer, but finally disappear. An accident brings them, but 
they adapt themselves to the surroundings, as their remain- 
ing during the summer shows. Occasionally seeing quanti- 
ties of young about two inches long seems to show that they 
spawned in the canal. The common Barred Minnows, Fun- 
dulus multifasciatus, have occasionally been seen by the author 
in spring-basins, at a considerable elevation from the brook 
into which its waters emptied. How they got there was a 
question it was found difficult to answer. To pass from the 
brook to the spring head it was necessary to pass up little 
perpendicular falls of twelve and fifteen inches. Within a 
short time we came across a large number in a little pool 
about a yard in diameter, fed by a fall of just thirteen inches, 
and very nearly perpendicular. With a sudden onset, we 
forced them from their quarters and saw several mount the 
fall. The power of this fish to swim against the current is 
very great, and by exercise of it only could we explain their 
presence at fountain heads. The mass of these fish are found 
in the river and tide water creeks, but in some numbers 
everywhere that it is possible for any fish to live. 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. IV. 14 
