48 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF WHITEFISH {Conoonus nelsonii), FROM ALASKA. BY TAKL,ETOi> IB. BEAN, Cvrator of the Department of Fishes in the United States Katioval Museum. Coregonus nelsonii Beau. Htiuip-back whitefish. This ts|)ecie8 is known from Alaska only, occuniujj^ from the Bristol Bay region northward to the extremity of the Territory. This whitefish, which appears to be still undescribed, has long been known from Alaska, bnt it has been confounded with a Siberian spe- cies, C. syrok, from which it is really very different. The Russian name of the species is Korahati ; the Tiuneh tribes of the Yukon call it ''Kolo- huh.'''' Mr. Dall, in the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1870, ])age 38G, speaks of it as a common species, characterized by the strongly arched back and broad tail. He says it is rather bony and inferior in tlavpr, and tliat it is generally tised for dog-feed, except in times of scarcity. This species is related to C. clupeiformis and C. lahradoricuH. From clu- peiformis it may readily be distinguished by its greatly arched and mucli compressed back. The body is oblong and comjjresscd ; the head is one-fifth as long as the fish without the caudal; the maxilla extends to the front margin of the eye, and is about one fourth as long a.s the head ; the gill-rakers are only moderately long, the longest a little more than one-half length of eye, and their number is about 26. The great- est height of the body is a little more than one-fourth of the total length ill the typical example, which is about 14.^ inches long to caudal base. The adipose fin is large and scaled for nearly half its height. The ventrals are a little nearer the tip of the snout than the root of the caudal; they are about as long as the head without the snout. D. 12 ; 12 scales 10—88—10. The type of the species is No. 29903, taken A. ; at Nulato, Alaska, by Mr. E. W. Nelson, to whom the species is dedi- cated in recognition of his important zoological researches in that Ter- ritory. ON THE LITERATURE AND SYSTEMATIC RELATIONS OF THE SACCOPHARYNGOID FISHES. By TEIEODORE OIL.1^ aud JOHIV A. KVDER. About sixty years ago a most remarkable fish was first introduced into scientific literature under the generic name Saccopliarynx. Other examples have been found in the meanwhile, and yet until the present the form has had no established place in the system. Notwithstanding the alleged existence of two specimens in one of the richest ichthyolog- ical collections extant, uiuler the custody of one who has i)rofessed to give the most complete system of fishes, the type has been involve<l in PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 49 Vol. Til, IVo. 4. Wa^hing^ton, D. €. June 11, 1884. much uncertainty. The recent discovery of an even more remarkable form in the deep seas of the North Atlantic has directed our attention to the older known species, and by reason of the light reflected by the newly-discovered one, we are enabled to interpret much that was am- biguous and inexplicable in the descriptions of the old ichthyologists. We here give an historical sketch of Saccopharynx and the fishes that have been referred to that genus. I. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1§24—Description of au extraordinary Fish, resembling the StylephoruB of Shaw. By S. L. MiTCHiLL, M. D. Read February 3, 1824. <:^ Annals Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York, v., 1, pp. 82-8fi. i 827—On a new discovered genus of serpentiform fishes. By Dr. J. Harwood, Pro- fessor of Natural History in the Royal Institution of Great Britain. <^Phil. Trans. Royal Society, 1827, pp. 49-57, pi. 7. 1829—Le Regne Animal distribu<5 d'apr^s son organisation, pour servir de i)ase a I'histoire naturelle des auimanx, et d'introduction a I'anatomie compar^e, par Georges CuviER. [2«4d.] Paris, 1829. 1836—Fauna Boreali-Americana ; or the Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America : containing descriptions of the objects of Natural History collected on the late northern land expeditions under command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R. N. Part third. The Fish. By John Richardson, M. D., F. R. S., F. L. S. [etc.]. —Illustrated by numerous jdates. —Published under the authority of the right honourable the secretarj'^ of state for colonial affairs. —Loudon : Richard Bentley, New Burlington street, MDCCCXXXVI. [4", pp. XV., 327 (+1), 24 pi. (numbered 74-97).] 1845—Encyclopiedia Metropolitana ; or. Universal Dictionary of Knowledge on an original plan ; comprising the twofold advantage of a philosophical and an alphabetical arrangement, with appropriate engravings. Edited by the Rev. Edward Smedley, M. A., the Rev. Hugh James Rose, B, D., and the Rev. Henry John Rose, B. D. Vol. xxiv [and vol. vii]. London: B. Fel- lowes; [etc.]. 1845. 1 846—A Synopsis of the Fishes of North America. By David Humphreys Storer, M. D., A. A. S., .... <Mem. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci.,new series, vol. ii, pp. 253-550, Cambridge, 184G. A Synopsis of the Fishes of North America. By David Humphreys Storer, M. D.,A. A. S., .... Cambridge: Metcalf and Company, printers to the University. 184G. [4°, 1 p. 1. (= title), 298 pp.] [A reprint, with separate pagination, title-page, and index, of the preceding.] 1856—lustitut Imperial de France. Ichthyologie analytique ou essai d'une classifi- cation naturelle des poissons, a I'aide de tableaux synoptiques, par A. M. C. DuMi^RiL, [etc.]. (Extrait du tome xxvii des M^moires de I'Academie des Sciences.) Paris, Typographic de Firmin-Didot freres, fils et Cie, [etc.]. 185G. [4°, viii, 507 pp.] 1859—Enumeratio specierum piscium hucusquein archipelago indico observatorum, [etc.], auctore Petro equite a Bleeker, [etc.]. Bataviie, typis Laugii «&, •SCO. 1859. [4°, xxxvi, 276 pp.] Proc. Nat. Uns. 84 4 — 50 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 1§62—Notes ou rare and little-known fishes taken at Madeira. By James Yate Johnson, cor. mem. Z. S. No. II. <Anual8 and Mag. Nat Hist., (3,) v. 10, pp. 274-287, Oct., 1862. 1§70—Catalogue of Fishes in the British Museum. By Albekt Gcntiieh, M. A., M. D., etc A'olume eighth. Loudon: printed by order of the trustees. 1870. [=Catalogue of the Physostomi, containing the families Gymnotidit, Symbranchida;, Murienida', Pegasid*, and of the [orders] Lophobranchii, Plectoguathi, [and sub-classes] Dipnoi, Ganoidei, Chondropterygii, Cy- clostouiata, Leptocardii, in the British Museum London : printed by order of the trustees. 1870. —8°, xxv, 549 pp.] lS7d—Arrangement of the families of Fishes, or classes Pisces, Marsipobranchii, and Leptocardii. Prepared for the Smithsonian Instittition. By Theodore Gill, M. D., Ph. D. Washington : published by the Smithsonian Institu- tion. November, 1872. (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 247. 8", xlvi, 49 pp.] 1§73—Catalogue of the Fishes of the east coast of North America. By Theodore Gill, M. D., Ph. D. Washington : published by the Smithsonian Institu- tion. 1873. (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 283. —2 p. 1., .50 pp.) [Published originally in "United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. —Part I. —Report on the Condition of the Sea Fisheries of the South Coast of New England in 1871 and 1872. By Spencer F. Baird, Commissioner. With supplementary papers. —Washington: Government Printing Office 1873.—Pp. 779—822=pp. 1—44 of Catalogue."] 1877—The Museum of Natural History, being a popular ace mnt of the structure, habits, and classification of the animal kingdom, [etc.]. By Sir John Richardson, [etc.]. With a History of the American Fauna by Joseph B. Holder, M. D. [etc.]. Vol. II. New York : Virtue & Yorston. 18§0—An Introduction to the Study of Fishes. By Albert C. L. GtJNTHER [etc.]. Edinburgh : Adam and Charles Black. 1880. 1882—Synopsis of the Fishes of North America. By David S. Jordan and Charles H.Gilbert. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1883. [&'-, Ivi, 1018pp.=Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 16.] 1883 —On the anatomy and relations of the Eurypharyngida\ By Theodore <jIll and John A. Ryder. <;Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v. 6, pp. 262-273, December 13, 1883. 1884—What are the Saccopharyngoid Fishes! [Signed Tiieo. Gill.] <Nature, V. 29, p. 236, January 10, 1884. There are also a number of works in which Saccopharyngidse are cas- ually mentioned, but it is here noteworthy that they find no place in the systematic essays of Bonaparte, Kaup, Richardson, Cope, et al. In the later zoological manuals {eg. Cams, Claus, Duncan) the views of Dr. Giiuther are copied. 11. HISTORY. • In 1824, Dr. S. L. Mitchill, in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York (v. 1, pp. 82-8G), contributed a " description of an extraordinary fish resembling the Stylephorus of iShaw." The fish in question was presented to Dr. Mitchill by Capt. Hector Coffin, and " was taken daring a voyp.ge from Londonderry to New York, in latitude 52 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 51 N. and longitude 30 W. It was discovered afloat about tweutj" yards from the vessel. A boat was hoisted out for the purpose of raising it. The creature was raised from the water without any resistance, and died in fifteen minutes after being taken on board." " When first seen, the belly was distended, as if blown up to the size of a quart decanter, or the crown of a hat. The stomach contained a fish ten inches long, which, from its sound state, appeared to have been recently swallowed. That fish was not preserved. " The length was six feet ; of which fourteen inches belonged to the body, or the space between the extremity of the upper lip beneath to the vent.