758 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [I^ol. XLI 



almost one hundred miles in length. Other such lakes still retain 

 a direct connection with the river and are termefl by the fishermen 

 "river-lakes." In these there is a current which often becomes 

 very strong during the sj)ring freshets, when the water of the 

 jMississippi River rises. 



Ivake Louis in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana, is a very old lake, 

 being now only from one to three hundred yards in width and about 

 six miles long. During the spring floods the Ouachita River sends 

 a large volume of ''backwater" into it, sometimes causing it to 

 rise as much as twenty feet. In many places the lake is from 

 forty to fifty feet deep. Polyodon exists in this lake in largte num- 

 bers, but it is an undesirable place for seining and therefore offers 

 poor facilities for the study of the fish. Lake Washington in 

 Washington County, [Mississippi, is by far the richest source of 

 Polyodon that I have been able to locate. This lake is a l)eautiful 

 l)0(ly of water more than one mile across in several places, and 

 about twelve miles long. It connects with the Mississipj)i throngii 

 about seventy miles of smaller lakes and bayous. As nian\ as 

 one hundred and fifty barrels of Polyodon Iiavc been caught in 

 this lake at one haul of the enormous seine .lesciibed Ix^low. 



Polyodon. like most large fi^h, fnM|uent. th.^ de,.,.<-r portions of 

 these iake> and is rarelveanolit i,. il,e .hailoue,- part.. It i^ almost 

 never foun.l in lakes" less than ten {vv\ in depth, rsnally it is 

 caught in diose parts of the lakes having soft nniddy bottoms, 

 the sections with hard sandy bottoms yielding no Polyodon when 

 seined. I1iis is due to the feeding halnts of the fish.' The main 



