THE LA KE TR O UTS. 46 7 



in his pickled state, which I procured at the Sault Ste. Marie, on the 

 strength of which I can recommend him to all lovers of good eating as 

 the very best salt fish that exists in the world. He is so fat and rich that 

 when eaten fresh he is unsufferably rank and oily, but when salted and 

 broiled, after being steeped for forty-eight hours in cold water, he is not 

 surpassed or equaled by any fish with which I am acquainted. Since my 

 return he has been tasted by very many gentlemen of my acquaintance, 

 and by no one of them has he been pronounced anything less than super- 

 lative. His habits closely resemble those of the ' Namaycush.' and. like 

 him, I cannot learn that he ever takes the fly or is ever taken by trolling. 

 I do not, however, believe that either of these methods is often resorted 

 to for his capture, although there are many scientific fly-fishers about the 

 Sault, and the Brook Trout of those waters are principally taken with large 

 and gaudy lake-flies. The average weight of the ' Siskawitz ' does not ex- 

 ceed four or five pounds, though he is taken up to seventeen. His excel- 

 lence is so perfectly understood and acknowledged in the lake country that 

 he fetches double the price per barrel of his coarser big brother, the 

 ' Namaycush'; and he is so greedily sought for there that it is difficult to 

 procure him, even at Detroit, and impossible almost, at Buffalo." 



Milner states that the Siscowet lives at depths greater than forty fathoms, 

 and feeds chiefly upon a species of fresh-water sculpin. It spawns in Sep- 

 tember in deep water. The average size is about four and one-half pounds. 

 Two five-pound fish yielded respectively 2,796 and 3,120 eggs. This 

 species, like the Lake Trout, is for the most part taken in gill-nets. 



Mr. George Barnston, of Montreal, Canada, formerly of the Hudson 

 Bay Company, who made an extensive natural history collection on Lake 

 Superior, claims that there is a third species of Lake Trout, different from 

 the Siscowet, on the south shore of Lake Superior, called the " Mucqua" 

 or " Bear Trout." 



Mr. Robert Ormsby Sweeny, chairman of the Minnesota fish commission, 

 in a letter dated Saint Paul, Minnesota, October 19, 1880, conveys the 

 following information concerning the Siscowet, which is more precise and 

 comprehensive than anything hitherto published : 



" I have not only examined the Siskowet carefully myself and compared 

 them with Agassiz's formulas, but asked and consulted with traders, voy- 

 agers, Indians and half-bloods, and fishermen, in regard to their habits, 

 size, color, weight, etc.. and all come to the same conclusion. They are 

 not possibly a ' Namaycush ' and should never be considered the same fish. 

 The name 'Sis-ko-wet' is an Ojibewa word, and means literally 'cooks 

 itself.' The fish when fresh is most deliciously rich, tasting like the belly 



