204 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[78.] 4. Salmo (Coregonus) quadrilateralis. (Richardson.) The 



Round-fish. 



Coregonus quadrilateralis. Richardson, Franklin's Journ., p. 714. 

 Katheh. Coppek Indians. Okeugnak. Esquimaux. 



Plate 89, f. 1, A and B, one-half nat. size. 



This Coregonus exists in the Polar Sea, off the mouths of the Coppermine and 

 Mackenzie, and in all the clear rivers and lakes north of the 62nd parallel of lati- 

 tude, being thus an inhabitant of both salt and fresh water, though we have no 

 information as to its quitting the one for the other at any stated period *. Our 

 Esquimaux interpreter, Augustus, informed us that his countrymen who frequent 

 the shores of the Welcome are well acquainted with it. Though a general inha- 

 bitant of the northern waters, it is not so plentiful as the Attihawmeg, nor so 

 gregarious, neither is it equally prized as an article of food. When in the fresh 

 waters it preys on larvae and soft insects. I have to regret that the stomachs of 

 those we took at sea were not examined, but it seems to obtain food there well 

 suited to its wants, as the individuals we caught in Bathurst's Inlet, on the 6th of 

 August, were larger, fatter, and brighter in colour, than those we obtained inland. 

 It spawns in September. 



From the body of this species being less compressed than that of the Attihaw- 

 meg, our voyagers named it the Round-fish, and I have given it the specific appel- 

 lation of quadrilateralis, on account of a flattening of the back, belly, and sides 

 being superadded to its general sub-fusiform shape. Baron Cuvier made the 

 following observation on the specimen which I submitted to his inspection : — 

 " Core gone voisine du Salmo mareena. Nous en avons une tres semblable du Lac 

 Ontario ; elles different du poisson des Lacs de Suisse parce quelles ont le museau 

 un peu plus pointu." 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a specimen taken in Great Bear Lake, lat. 641° N. 



Scales smaller than those of the Attihawmeg and very regularly disposed, the uncovered 



portion of each having a rhomboidal form. A scale taken from the side measures four lines 



transversely, and half a line less in the other direction : its outline presents five or six very slight 



* A Scottish species of Coregonus which inhabits the Castle Loch of Lochmaben, and is locally known by the name 

 of Fertilise, has been taken in the Solway Firth, but as the fisherman in whose net it was caught was totally unacquainted 

 with it, it had perhaps merely strayed accidentally to the sea. 



