[ J 53 ] 
you have given of this fifh, in the Britifh Zoology, 
is entirely correfponding with this fpecimen, fo that 
it would be iuperfluous to prefume to make any ad- 
ditions to it. I mud, however, obferve, that, after 
a mofl minute examination, I could find no more 
than fix branchioftegous rays in the two fpecimens 
from Hudfon’s Bay, of which you mention feven in 
the English Burbot, and Artedi as many in his fpe- 
cimens. This great naturalift feems likewife to be 
right, when he obferves that the cirri > or beards on 
the end of the nofe, are the valves to one of the 
noftrils; for I found that thefe beards, on their un- 
der-fide, opened into a hole, correfponding with the 
lower noftril. Mr. Andrew Graham, the collector 
of the Natural Hiftory fpecimens at Severn River in 
Hudfon’s Bay, obferves, that thefe fifh conftantly 
fwim clofe to the ground, and are extremely vora- 
cious j for he reprefents them as not content with 
devouring every fifh * they can overcome, but like- 
wife feeding on putrefying deer, or other carrion that 
comes in their wav ; even fiones are fometimes fwal- 
j J 
lowed to fatisfy their infatiable appetite, of which 
Mr. Graham was himfelf a witnefs, having taken 
a ftone of a pound weight out of the flomach of this 
fifh. The pike is often obliged to fall a vidtim, 
together with the trout, 1 Tickomeg , and others, to 
this rapacious fifh. After funfet, it is caught by a 
night-hock. It does not mafticate its food before 
deglutition. Its roe and liver are reckoned a deli- 
cacy, when frefh caught; but they turn rancid and 
* This too is the fifh that makes fuch havock in the Lake of 
Gen eva. P. 
Vol. LXIII. X oily 
