GADOIDE.E. 249 



Methy exists in every river and lake from Canada to the northern extremity of the 

 continent. It is extremely voracious, and preys on all kinds of fish, which it takes 

 chiefly or solely in the night. I opened several taken in Pine Island Lake, in the 

 month of March, which were filled with cray-fish to such a degree, that the form 

 of their bodies was quite distorted, the soft integuments of their bellies admitting 

 of great dilatation. It spawns in February, and, consequently, at a period when 

 the water is thickly covered with ice everywhere north of the great lakes of the 

 St. Lawrence. Its roe consists of very small eggs, which are so numerous that 

 Mr. Hutchins is reported, by Pennant, to have counted 671,248 in a single fish. 

 When well bruised and mixed with a little flour, the roe can be baked into very 

 good biscuits, which are used in the fur countries as tea-bread. The liver is also 

 considered to be a delicacy, but the flesh is eaten only in times of great scarcity, 

 being watery and tasteless, though in the few trials we were obliged to make of its 

 qualities, it did not appear to be unwholesome. Dogs, accustomed to feed on the 

 offal of every other kind of fish which exists in those countries, will not eat any 

 part of this, even when pressed by hunger. Its European representative, on the 

 contrary, the Burbot, is considered to be a delicate-flavoured fish. 



At Fort Good Hope, on the lower part of the Mackenzie, I observed a fish of 

 this genus, which differed from the ordinary state of the Methy in having much 

 brighter and more, varied colours, forming reticulations ; but we were on the eve 

 of embarkation, the pressure of other avocations prevented me from recording its 

 characters, or even preparing a specimen, — and, returning by another route, I had 

 no opportunity of seeing it again. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a recent specimen killed in Pine Isldid Lake, March 31, 1820. 



Form. — Profile oblong, tapering gradually into the lanceolate, acute extremity of the tail, 

 which reaches nearly to the centre of the obovate caudal fin. The body, unless when dis- 

 tended with roe, or with its prey, is compressed, its greatest circumference being just behind 

 the pectorals, and nearly equalling one-half its length : the depth of the body there is about 

 one-sixth of the length. Head broad, depressed, the jaws of equal length and very obtuse : 

 its length is contained rather less than six times in the total length, or rather more than five 

 times when the caudal fin is excluded. Eyes small, with a lateral aspect, but from the flat- 

 ness of the forehead appearing partly on the upper surface. The centre of the oval orbit is two 

 lengths of its axis from the tip of the snout, and somewhat short of four lengths from the pos- 

 terior edge of the gill-cover — there being five lengths and a half in the total length of ihe head. 

 Nostrils anterior to the orbit, the apertures small, and the foremost furnished with a long, loose, 

 skinny lid. The upper lip, attached to the intermaxillaries, fits into a fold of the integuments 

 of the snout. The intermaxillaries are attached to the snout by cartilages which admit of a 



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