78 
THE MEW YORK AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
IS IT A BASS OR WHITE FISH? 
\ ■ ,. . 
on the gentleman named in it 
As the result of the recent introduction of 
white fish into Otsego Lake, an interesting con¬ 
troversy has arisen between the devotees of the 
renowned Otsego bass and the more enlightened 
of our fish culturists. It is doubtless a severe 
trial for our friends at Cooperstown and the ad¬ 
jacent lake villages, to be compelled to admit 
that their ‘ 1 bass” is nothing more or less than a 
white fi h, and yet if they are prompted to re¬ 
pudiate this demonstrable fact it may possibly be 
a consolation for them to know that to other of 
their countrymen the white fish is held in as 
high regard as is the so-called “bass” with them. 
For this reason as well as for the more significant 
one of identity, there should be no further pro¬ 
test against the introduction of the white fish into 
the Otsego Lake. These comments are sug¬ 
gested by a recent correspondence which has 
taken place between Elihu Phinney, chairman 
of the Fish Commission, and Messrs. Green, 
Roosevelt and Mather. In directing attention 
to Mr. Mather’s opinion, Mr. Phinney states 
that “the views of this gentleman are entitled to 
the highest regard, for he is beyond question 
one of the very ablest investigators and accom¬ 
plished practical experimenters that we have in 
this highly interesting department of science.” 
A commendation such as this and from so dis-T 
but also on the 
Aquarium, where Mr. Mather holds the post of 
Superintendent of Fish Culture. Mr. Roose¬ 
velt having endorsed the opinion of Mr. Green 
that the Otsego bass, so called, and the white 
fish “are the same fish under different condi¬ 
tions,” Mr. Mather also states that a vari¬ 
ety of any fish bred in an isolated lake will, in 
time, divest the local peculiarities, and that this 
‘ ‘ bass, ” a thousand years ago, more or less, was 
identical with the white fish of the great lakes. 
For this reason Mr. Mather does not fear the 
introduction of the white fish into the Otsego Lake 
since it is morally certain that being fed on the 
same food and subjected to similar conditions, 
there will soon be a difficulty in distinguishing 
the difference between them on the table. 
A second letter by Mr. Mather suggested by 
this discussion, contains facts of so great interest 
not to fish culturists alone but to all those inter¬ 
ested in the general subject of which it treats, 
that we willingly reproduce it for the benefit of 
our readers. The letter is addressed to Mr. 
Phinney and reads as follows : 
New York, March 12th, 1877. 
Elihu Phinney, Esq.—Dear Sir : Your last, 
of 7th inst., received. In regard to the spelling 
of the generic name of the white fish, I will say 
that “ Coregonus” is the only way I have seen 
it spelled by the authorities. 
I have not had time to find with certainty its 
meaning, but I doubt the correctness of the de¬ 
rivation you give from the Latin of “Con,” (to¬ 
gether) and “Ago,” (to lead or drive), thus sig¬ 
nifying the fish that go in schools, from the fact 
that most generic names of fish are from the 
Greek, and the specific ones are Latin. It may 
be that it is composed of korein —to brush, or 
sweep, and Gonos, seed, progeny, If so, 
it would imply that the fish has a peculiar habit 
of sweeping its eggs in some manner. But so 
Super Family 
Saimonoidea 
Genu 
(Mailot, 
j Osmer 
Whiting—salt 
do the rest of the Salmonidse—for the fish 
question belongs there, though not to the ge 
salrno, thus : 
Family. Sub-Family 
' Microstomidm, ArB . 6 _ n . 
(Micro Small) Argenimmie 
(Stomus Mouth) 
(Microstoma. 
Mlerostomlme 1 Coregonus. 
(Thymallus. 
Salmonidte, Salmonime {Tru Ma 
Almost all fish that have two dorsal fins, with 
the last one composed of fatty matter without 
rays, are comprehended in this super-family, 
except catfish, percopsis, &c. 
The genera are as follows : 
Mallotus—the Capelin—salt water. 
Osmerus—the Smelts, two kinds—salt water. 
Microstoma—the Greenland 
water. 
Coregonus—Whitefish—fresh and salt water. 
Thymallus—Grayling—fresh water. 
Salmo—Salmon and the Trouts. 
Trutta, (Marina)—Sea Trout. 
Now for the “ Coregoni " : 
C. Albns, (white,) is the one from the great 
lakes. The English naturalist, Richardson, 
says, “probably the best purely fresh water fish 
in the world.” 
C. Clupeiformis, (herring-shaped) is the lake 
herring, a fine fish when fresh, known as “Cis¬ 
co ’ when salted, but not identical with the 
Cisco of Geneva Lake. 
C. Nigripinnis, (black finf from the Upper 
lakes, particularly abundant in Grand Traverse 
Bay. 
C. Conesii, (after Dr. Cones) from Jake near 
the Rockv Mountains, its upper jaw is prolonged 
into a skinny appendage. 
and 
of h«ch I know nothing ' 
C Otsego, the : (Otsego Bass. 
There are other species, but this will show the 
extent of the genus Coregonus in America—and 
they are everywhere great favorites. The people 
of Canandaigua, N. Y, claim for their lake a 
supremacy over all other white fish, and say that 
no others will be relished after eating theirs. 
You say in your article, that I do not indicate 
what common name I would give if not “ bass.” 
Veiy true, I do not. It is hard to make a change, 
and new names sound harshly to the ear, and 
the tongue is slow to pronounce them. 
All the English speaking world unite in calling 
only those fish “ bass ” which have spinous rays 
in the dorsal fin. “Perch” and “bass” are 
often used for the same fish in different locali¬ 
ties. Thus, the “Black Bass” of New York 
becomes ‘ ‘ Black Perch ” in other States, (Sfc. 
The common names tor kindred fish in Eu¬ 
rope, are Lavaret, Gwynnaid and Vendace. 
Some naturalists are fond of multiplying species 
—making a new one of the smallest differences 
—and others of condensing, and so simplifying 
our studies. I have not yet taken up this genus, 
and do not really know the points of difference 
claimed. 
I find in the report of the Commissioner of 
Fisheries for the U. S., 1872 - 3 , p. lxxv, the 
following: “Otsego Lake * * * is ten¬ 
anted by a fish of the finest quality, called the 
Otsego bass, (C. Otsego), a true white fish, and 
not yet satisfactorily distinguished from the white 
fish of the lakes. 
DeKay, Nat. Hist. New York, Part 1 , Vol. 4 , 
page 248 , says that having mislaid his notes, he 
follows the description of De Witt Clinton, who 
records the rays of the dorsal fin as nine in num¬ 
ber, three of which are imperfect. While he gives 
C. Aldus as having thirteen dorsal rays. 
If I had them in the Aquarium, I certainly 
would not call them “bass,” but would proba¬ 
bly say, “Come, look at my Otsegos,” which 
would thus become the Aquarium name for want 
of a better. FRED. MATHER, 
Sup’t Fish Culture. 
GOSSIP ABOUT CRABS. 
The body of the worm, the most lowly organ¬ 
ized of all the three types of articulated animals 
(worms, crustaceans and insects), is long and 
slender, and is composed of rings of equal size, 
which seem to have about an equal amount of 
vitality. But in the order of crabs—the Crustacea 
—of which I am going to speak, the body is 
composed of a definite number ( 21 ) of rings, 
gathered into two regions, the front region con¬ 
sisting of the head and body united, called the 
head-thorax {cephalo-thorax), and the after-part 
or abdomen. Look at the body of a shrimp, and 
you will readily see how distinct these regions 
are. The rings themselves of crustaceans differ 
from the simple segments of worms, for here 
they are no longer soft and pliant, but tough— 
even shelly—and so joined together as to box 
up the front region in an immovable case termed 
the cephalo-thorax. This condition allows but 
slight motion to the tail, and there can not be 
said to be any head separate from the thoracic 
box. 
In the limbs we find a gradual change of form 
and function from the long whiplash-like anten¬ 
na in front, which curl over the shrimp’s back, 
to short jaws; then, still going backward to jaws 
that are also used in walking, till, finally, we 
come to the true feet, which spring from the ab¬ 
dominal segments. Sometimes the jaws are so 
near like the true feet that the crabs seem to be 
rinir r 7 ~ 
chewing with theii 'CiAinvs ! 
The abdomen varies much in shape, being 
long or short, carried straight behind as in the 
lobsters and cray-fish, curled under the body as 
in the spider-crabs, or prolonged into a stiff 
sword as in the king-crab. 
Internally all the organs of motion and sensa¬ 
tion are found in the cephalo-thorax, only the 
intestines and reproductive organs occupying the 
abdomen. Moreover the nerves are not dis¬ 
tributed equally to each segment throughout the 
body as in worms, but all spring from one or 
a few centers ( ganglia ) in the front region; so 
that the abdomen is of much the least value to 
the animal. And this introduces a principle 
which acts everywhere in the animal kingdom, 
and finds its most perfect example in man—the 
principle of cephalization. This is that the 
greater or less centralization of parts and func¬ 
tions toward the head is a sign of the higher or 
lower place an animal fills in the scale of organ¬ 
ization. 
The Class Crustacea is made up of four Orders, 
namely: 
The wheel-animalcules ( Rolf era). 
The parasitic crustaceans {Entomostraca). 
The fourteen-footed crabs {Teiradeca poda). 
The ten-footed crabs ( Deca poda). 
The first named are the lowest, are all micro¬ 
scopic, live in the water, and are forever whirl¬ 
ing by means of delicate hollow hairs ( cibia), 
that serve as hands, feet, mouth, eyes and lungs 
to them. 
The entomostracans are also fitted for an 
aquatic life, but many are parasitic, and not a 
few queerly deformed. The barnacles belong 
here. 
The Order of Tetradecapods includes crustace¬ 
ans living both on land and in the water. The 
1 
