112 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 



Their food is coin posed of anything that may come in the way. The mouth is capable of 

 being projected three or more inches and is sufficient in power when projected to cause the hand 

 to receive a small blow. 



The Russian-speaking people call the Rays Morskoi OMka, or Seagulls. 



PETROMYZONTID5!. 



116. Ammogcetes aureus Bean. (See Fig. XV.) 



This species of Lamprey ascends the Yukon River in the latter part of December of each year 

 They are so abundant that figures fail to express an adequate idea of their numbers. They swim 

 in large schools toward their spawning place, which is yet undetermined. They are not rapid in 

 their movements, so that by the middle of February they have ascended only about 250 miles up 

 the river. By that time they have arrived at Auvik and Mission on the Yukon, and by the latter 

 part of April they have arrived at Fort Yukon, over 1,000 miles from the mouth of the river. The 

 season at any given place is about three weeks. 



At Mission and Auvik the natives, who are on the watch for their coming, cut a narrow piece of 

 ice out of the river, and in a direction across the current where the fish are ascending. A long 

 stick, having several twigs or forks left on it, is used to obtain these fish. The native then thrusts 

 it into the water, and with a quick lift throws out dozens of these fish at a time. In a couple of 

 hours an industrious native will have caught a wagon-load of them. The fish are thrown into piles 

 and are left to freeze as they fall. So long as the ice in the river lasts the pile offish is secure, as 

 it is frozen so hard that nothing affects it. When the fish are wanted for food a chunk is picked 

 off and taken to the huts. The fish are very fat. The oil is readily boiled out, and is said to have 

 a pleasant taste, though a rather rank smell. I am not aware that this species is found anywhere 

 else than in the Yukon River. 



The color of the fish is yellowish olive on the back, becoming lighter on sides and dull sul- 

 phur-yellow on abdomen and lower side of head. The lower parts posterior to the anus are like the 

 color of the sides. 



The Russian name of this species is Menoga, meaning Lamprey. As this species does not occur 

 in the vicinity of Saint Michael's, I could not learn any name for it in the Eskimo language. These 

 people only know of the fish by its being obtained from the Yukon. 



SCYMNIDiB. 



95 (of Appeudix). Somniosus microcephalus (Block) Gill. 



Ou the 28th of November, 1874, a trader was visiting some fox-traps a few miles above Saint 

 Michael's. His attention was directed to the dogs which accompanied him, suiffiug the air, and 

 running to the shore under a high bluff where they found a dead Shark which had apparently been 

 lying there several days, and was probably stranded there previous to the bay having been frozen 

 over on the 19th of that month. I was informed of it, and went with him to the place. In the 

 mean time he had set several fox-traps near the carcass, as the foxes attracted by the food had 

 visited it in great numbers. Ou arriving at the place he told me to look out for traps. Just at that 

 instant a setter dog stepped into one of the traps. The fright made the dog jump so high that she 

 struck him, and nearly knocked him down. After releasing the dog, we pried the Shark out from 

 between the rocks and shore-ice. It measured seven feet nine inches in length, aud weighed 340 

 pounds. A portion was taken to the redoubt, where it was used as dog food, the dogs having no 

 dislike for the meat. 



A second specimen was Cast up by the sea near the village of At hivilc, or Stebbins,on the westeru 

 side of the island of Saint Michael's, in November, 1876. These two individuals were the only ones 

 ever known to occur in that vicinity, as the natives had never seen or heard of them previous to 

 the appearance of the first one. 



A large species of Shark (Squalus acanthias Linne) occurs in the neighborhood of Karluk on the 

 north western side of Kadiak Island. It comes there in large schools, sometimes numbering thirty 

 to fifty, to obtain the salmon which are entering the small river at that point. The natives en- 

 gaged in helping preserve salmon for the fishing stations there generally take a calm day aud hunt 





