3 -THE FISHES OF TEXAS AND THE RIO GRANDE BASIN, CONSIDERED 
CHIEFLY WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. 
BY BARTON W. EVERMANN AND WILLIAM C. KENDALL. 
INTRODUCTION. 
During the months *of November and December- of 1891, Prof. Evermann was 
engaged, under the direction of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Cob Marshall 
McDonald, in making certain investigations looking toward the establishment of a fish- 
cultural station at some point in the State of Texas. While carrying on these investi- 
gations, extensive collections of fishes were made at various places, particularly at 
Galveston and- Corpus Christi on the coast, and in the vicinity of Houston, Pales- 
tine, San Antonio, New Braunfels, and San Marcos in the interior. The report* upon 
the specific object of this work was published May 25, 1892. This report contained, 
in addition, the results of the studies of the species of Cyprinidce and Cyprinodontida ? 
contained in the collections. Other duties in connection with the fur-seal investiga- 
tions in the North Pacific and Bering Sea have delayed until now the completion of 
the report upon the remaining species. When these came to be studied, it was decided 
to bring together all that is known to date regarding the fishes of Texas and the Bio 
Grande Basin, particularly respecting their geographic distribution in that region. 
The present paper has, therefore, been made to include all the species, both salt and 
fresh water, which have ever been reported from that region, so far as we have been able 
to learn. Geographically, the paper is made to include not only the State of Texas, but 
all those portions of Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico which belong in the hydro- 
graphic basin of the Bio Grande. 
THE GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS. 
EXTENT. 
The area of Texas is 265,780 square miles, which is about 9 per cent of the entire 
United States. Texas is equal to the combined areas of Maine, New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Massachusetts, Bhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio, and is nearly 2J times as large as 
all Great Britain and Ireland. It is over 800 miles in greatest length and is nearly 
as wide from east to west. Its greatest length is as great as the distance from Boston 
* Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries respecting the establishment of Fish-Cultural 
- Stations' in the Rooky Mountain Region and Gulf States. Senate Mis. Doc. No. 65, Fifty-second Con- 
gress, first session. Pages i to iv and 1 to 88; plates i to xxxvi. [This report was subsequently 
reprinted as Articles 1 and 2 of the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission for 1891.] 
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