144 Fish Stories 



in English eating houses, and in that form they are surely 

 good. To the trout-hog the Dolly Varden can be strongly 

 commended, for it swarms in millions in every Alaska 

 stream (the Yukon and its tributaries excepted). It will 

 take the hook cheerfully, even dutifully. I once saw two 

 Dolly Vardens caught with a pin-hook, which a little girl 

 let down through a knot hole into the gutter on a street in 

 Skagway. And of the thousands, there is not one that 

 would ever be missed, for each one which is killed saves 

 the life of a dozen salmon. 



The trout of the Yukon is the Mackinaw, or Great Lake 

 trout, Cristivomer namaycush, another kind of char, which 

 reaches a great size, forty or fifty pounds or more, and is 

 known by its cream-colored spots. These are never red as 

 in the true char. This char is found also in various lakes 

 of British Columbia and the eastern United States, from 

 New York to Labrador, but it does not enter the United 

 States to the westward of Lake Superior and Lake Michi- 

 gan. It is an excellent food fish, but not valued highly by 

 anglers, as it has a deep boring habit and has a sullen dislike 

 to being hooked. In Lake Superior, where the lake trout 

 is very fat, it is known as the Siscowet. We find no real 

 difference, however, between the Siscowet and the ordinary 

 lake trout. 



The char of Europe {Sahelinus alpinus), called Saibling 

 or ombre chevalier, is a dainty fish of the mountain streams 

 and lakes, its size and appearance varying much with the 

 water in which it lives. It has small red spots, and its belly 

 and lower fins are usually orange. Very close to it is the 

 Sunapee trout, Salveliniis aiireolus, of certain lakes in New 

 Hampshire. It may be even the same fish, introduced by 

 some one from Europe. Several other forms, scarcely 

 separable from the char of Europe, occur in Labrador and 

 eastern Canada. 



A more distinct form is the Oquassa or blue-back trout of 

 the Rangeley Lakes, Salvelinus oquassa, a small slender 



