FAMILY SALMONIDJE SALMO. 239 



pointed axillary plate. Anal fin quadrate ; its extreme height 4 -4, and its base 3 - ; com- 

 posed of twelve robust rays. Caudal fin nine inches in extent from tip to tip, furcate, with a 

 sinuous margin. 



Color, from a living specimen. All the upper portion of the head and body bluish black. 

 Sides of the head and body, base of the first dorsal, of the caudal and anal fins, with nume- 

 rous rounded crowded irregular light grey spots. On the base of the dorsal and caudal, the 

 spots are oblong, light greenish. Chin brownish bronze. Pupils black ; irides salmon-colored. 

 Tips of the lower fins slightly tinged with red. 



Length, 31 '3; of the head, 7'3. Weight 15 pounds. 

 Fin rays, D. 14.0; P. 14; V. 9; A. 12; C. 21 |. 



This is the well known Lake Salmon, Lake Trout or Salmon Trout of the State of New- 

 York. Among the thirteen species or varieties of Lake Trout or Lake Salmon, so beautifully 

 illustrated by Richardson, I cannot find this species described. It appears most nearly allied 

 by the figure to S. hoodii (PL 82, 83 and 87), but differs in very important particulars from 

 that species. It occurs in most of the northern lakes of this State, and I have noticed it in 

 Silver lake, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Broome county, which, as far as I know, is its south- 

 ernmost limits. I have to acknowledge my obligations to Miss Ann Rose (now Mrs. Main), 

 for a beautiful drawing of the Lake Salmon from this locality. The figure illustrating this 

 species was from a specimen taken at Lake Louis, Hamilton county, and was selected for 

 his unusual size and vigor. The average weight is from eight to ten pounds, but I have heard 

 fishermen speak of some weighing thirty pounds and even more. There is, however, such a 

 strong propensity to exaggeration in every thing pertaining to aquatic animals, that I refrain 

 from citing cases derived from such sources. 



The Lake Trout furnishes an important, and often necessary article of food, to the frontier 

 settler. They frequent the deepest part of the lake, and unlike most of their congeners, 

 never rise to the fly. In order to take them, particular deep spots are selected and marked 

 by buoys. Large quantities of small fish are then cut up and thrown in at the buoys for 

 several days in succession. After having been thus baited, and accustomed to resort to the 

 spot, they are then readily taken by the hook. Some idea of their abundance may be formed 

 from the fact that a single fisherman has been known to capture, on Paskungameh or Long 

 lake, five hundred weight in the course of a week. Its price, when salted down, is ten cents 

 per pound ; but in winter when it can be preserved fresh, it sells from twelve to fourteen cents 

 the pound. It has become, in these regions, an important article of commerce ; and if the 

 settlers would confine themselves to bait fishing, the species would be long preserved. Un- 

 fortunately, however, they are speared in great numbers in October, when they are said to 

 come out in the shoal water to spawn. Any legislative enactment for their preservation, how- 

 ever, would be useless in these thinly peopled districts ; and, of course, we may look for the 

 gradual but certain extirpation of this species. 



The flesh is of course esteemed in these districts, where no oceanic fish is ever tasted ; 

 but to me, it appears to possess all the coarseness of the halibut, without its flavor. 



