No. VI.] 



NOTICES OF THE FISHES. 



723 



Of the figures given by Le Sueur in the work so often cited, the C. Duquesnii most 

 resembles the wawpawhawkeeshew, and we have some doubts of their being specifi- 

 cally different, but the greater size of the head and mouth, and the rather smaller 

 scales of the latter, have prevented us from uniting them until the matter is decided 

 by actual comparison, or fuller descriptions. The specific name we have employed is 

 a tribute to the merit of M. Le Sueur, who has established and illustrated this 

 genus. 



In addition to the three species of carp here described, we observed, a fourth of 

 considerably smaller size at Carlton-House, but circumstances prevented us from 

 taking a description of it at the time, and we did not afterwards meet with it. They 

 all spawn in June. They are not esteemed as articles of food, being soft and watery 

 when boiled, but they have no disagreeable flavour. The namay-peeth is very 

 abundant in the Saskatchawan ; the meethquamay-peeth is more common to the 

 northward of Great Slave Lake ; and the wawpawhawkeeshew is comparatively rare 

 every where. 



Silurus Felis ? Cat-fish . 



Mathemegh, Cree Indians. Cat-fish and Barbue of the Traders. 

 Genus Silurus, Lin. Sub-genus Pimelodus, Cuv. Reg.^An. p. 203. 

 Silurus felis, Gmel. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 1356 ? 

 Mysrtus, No. 1., Seba Thesaur. p. 82, t. xxix. fig. 1? 



Body oblong, tapering posteriorly, belly swelling out considerably before the central 

 fins. Lateral line straight. 



The colour of the back and sides is dark greenish-brown, and nearly uniform ; the 

 belly approaches to white. 



The head is flat and broad, the transverse diameter being equal to its length. There 

 is no distinct osseous plate at the nape of the neck, but there is a small lengthening 

 out of the cranium, which is concealed by the thick smooth skin which covers the 

 head ; the snout is very obtuse, almost semicircular. 



The mouth is large, and placed at the extremity of the head ; the upper lip projects 

 very slightly beyond the lower one. 



The maxillary bones are lengthened out into cirrhi, which are as long as the head. 

 A slender cirrhus, about an inch long, rises on each side from the upper margins 

 of the nostrils, and there are four cirrhi on the lower jaw, of which the outermost 

 are 2|- inches long ; the other two are shorter. 



There is a crowded assemblage of small erect teeth on the upper and lower jaw, 

 but the palate and vomer are smooth. The first dorsal is sub-quadrangular, and 

 contains seven rays, of which the first is very strong and bony, but not denticulated ; 

 the others are branched. 



The first ray of the pectorals is still stronger, and also free from denticulations. 



