STATE CONVENTION—FISH OF WISCONSIN. 
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body, and number it is said, over one hundred millions. The 
principal commercial value of sturgeon is found in the roe and 
swimming bladder. The much prized caviar is manufactured from 
the former, and from the latter the best of isinglass is obtained. 
The Gar-pikes — Lepidosteus —are represented by at least three 
species of this singular fish. They have long serpentine bodies, 
with jaws prolonged into a regular bill, which is well provided 
with teeth. The scales are composed of bone covered on the out- 
side with enamel, like teeth. 
The alligator gar, confined to the depths of the Mississippi, is a 
large fish, and the more common species, lepidosteus bison, attains 
to a considerable size. There was one brought to me last Febru¬ 
ary, caught in a small lake in Kenosha county, which measured 
46 inches in length, head 14f inches long, body 14 inches in 
circumference. 
The lepidosteus, now only found in ISTorth America, once had 
representatives all over the globe. Fossils of the same family, of 
which the gar-pike is the type, have been found all over Europe, 
in the oldest fossiliferous beds, in the strata of the age of coal, in 
the new red sandstone, in oolite deposits and in the chalk and 
tertiary formation ; being one of the many living evidences that 
North America was the first country above the water, the first dry 
land. 
For all practical purposes, we would not regret to have the gar- 
pikes follow in the footsteps of their aged and illustrious prede¬ 
cessors. They could well be spared. 
There is a fish —Lota Maculose —which belongs to the codfish 
family, called by the fisherman the lawyers, for what reason, I cer¬ 
tainly am not able to say, for the fish is worthless, and lawyers, 
you know, are-. Well, I am only speaking of fish now. 
There are a great number of small fish only interesting to the 
naturalist, which I shall omit to mention here. 
Fishes of northern countries are the most valuable, for the rea¬ 
son that the water is colder and purer. Wisconsin, situated be¬ 
tween forty-two thirty, and forty-seven degrees of latitude, bound¬ 
ed on the east and north by the largest lakes in the world, on the 
