SILUROIDEiE. 135 



spot, so that it can be very readily captured by passing a noose over its head. It 

 is also speared in the night time, by torch-light, which is a common mode of fishing 

 in the lakes. 



M. Le Sueur distinguishes this species by the orbicular shape of its head, the form of its 

 body, which is broad anteriorly and compressed posteriorly, and by the black colour of its 

 iris. It has eight barbels in the ordinary situations : the two pairs on the lower jaw are of 

 equal length; the eyes are small; the anterior nasal openings are tubular, and, as usual, a 

 barbel springs from the hinder margin of each of the posterior ones ; the cheeks are rounded ; 

 the snout is broad and depressed; the upper jaw projects beyond the inferior one, and both 

 are provided with fine, long, closely-crowded teeth, which are buried to their tips in the thick 

 integuments : the gullet is also furnished with tubercles covered with teeth ; the dorsal, broad 

 and rounded, has its bony ray set posteriorly with teeth which point toward its base ; the anal 

 and ventrals are also rounded : the former is very long, the latter and the adipose fin are of 

 medium size; the caudal is slightly crescentic at the end; all the rays of the fins, except the 

 bony ones of the pectorals and dorsal, are divided and concealed by the very thick skin in 

 which they are enveloped. 



Fins.— Br. 8 ; D. 7 ; P. 10; V, 8; A. 25; C. 16. (Le Sueur, I. c.) 



[60.] 3. Silurus (Pimelodus) borealis. (Richardson.) The 



Mathemeg. 



Cod mathemeg. Penn., Arct. Zool. Suppl., p. 1 15. No. 94. Intr., cxci. 



Silurus felis P Rich., Frank. Journ., p. 723. 



Le Chat. Canadian Voyageurs. Mathemeg. Crees. 



The mathemeg, or land cod of the residents in the fur countries, is taken spa- 

 ringly, during the summer months, in the lakes through which the Saskatchewan 

 flows. It is the most northern American species of the family, but does not range 

 higher than the 54th parallel. It is prized as a well-flavoured, rich fish, though 

 its aspect is by no means prepossessing to one who is a stranger to its good quali- 

 ties. Its Cree appellation signifies " ugly fish." A specimen which I brought 

 home in 1821, is not now within my reach, but the species differs manifestly from 

 the two preceding ones in the shape of its dorsal fin, and in its pectoral spine being- 

 void of serratures. The size of its head also requires it to be included in that tribe 

 of the sub-genus which is indicated in the Regne Animal by the name of Les 

 Chats, or Cats, in which the head is very broad, covered with naked skin, and fur- 



