Salmonidae 115 



the chevron and free from the shaft. This crest is armed with 

 strong teeth. There are also large hooked teeth on the hyoid 

 bone, and the teeth generally are proportionately stronger than 

 in most of the other species. The Great Lake trout is grayish in 

 color, light or dark according to its surroundings ; and the body 

 is covered with round paler spots, which are gray instead of red. 

 The dorsal and caudal fins are marked with darker reticula- 

 tions, somewhat as in the brook-trout. This noble species is 

 found in all the larger lakes from New England and New York to 

 Wisconsin, Montana, the Mackenzie River, and in all the lakes 

 tributary to the Yukon in Alaska. We have taken examples 

 from Lake Bennett, Lake Tagish, Summit Lake (White Pass), 

 and have seen specimens from Lake La Hache in British 

 Columbia. It reaches a much larger size than any Salvelinus, 

 specimens of from fifteen to twenty pounds weight being not 

 uncommon, while it occasionally attains a weight of fifty to 

 eighty pounds. As a food-fish it ranks high, although it may be 

 regarded as somewhat inferior to the brook-trout or the whitefish. 

 Compared with other salmonoids, the Great Lake trout is a slug- 

 gish, heavy, and ravenous fish. It has been known to eat raw po- 

 tato, liver, and corn-cobs, refuse thrown from passing steamers. 

 According to Herbert, "a coarse, heavy, stiff rod, and a powerful 

 oiled hempen or flaxen line, on a winch, with a heavy sinker; a 

 cod-hook, baited with any kind of flesh, fish, or fowl, is the most 

 successful, if not the most orthodox or scientific, mode of cap- 

 turing him. His great size and immense strength alone give him 

 value as a fish of game ; but when hooked he pulls strongly and 

 fights hard, though he is a boring, deep fighter, and seldom if 

 ever leaps out of the water, like the true salmon or brook-trout." 



In the depths of Lake Superior is a variety of the Great Lake 

 trout known as the Siscowet (Cristivomer namaycush siskawitz), 

 remarkable for its extraordinary fatness of flesh. The cause of 

 this difference lies probably in some peculiarity of food as yet 

 unascertained. 



The Ayu, or Sweetfish. The ayu, or sweetfish, of Japan, 

 Plecoglossus altivelis, resembles a small trout in form, habits, 

 and scaling. Its teeth are, however, totally different, being 

 arranged on serrated plates on the sides of the jaws, and the 

 tongue marked with similar folds. The ayu abounds in all 



