DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN_PIKES 



Henshall, the well-known savant, in "Bass, Pike, 

 Perch, and Other Game Fishes of America," speaking 

 of this matter says (I quote by permission): 



"I have examined and compared specimens from 

 the St. Lawrence and Indian Rivers, New York, Lake 

 Erie, the Wisconsin Lakes, Lake Pepin, Chautauqua 

 and Conneaut Lakes, Scioto and Mahoning Rivers in 

 Ohio, and have seen preserved heads of large ones 

 from Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and found that 

 they all agree so well in the number of branchiostegals, 

 squamation of the cheeks and opercles, in dentition, 

 fins, and measurements, that they must all be con- 

 sidered one and the same species. At the Chicago 

 Columbian Exposition there were some twenty very 

 large specimens of mounted skins from Canadian 

 waters in the exhibition of the Ottawa Museum which 

 showed well the variations in markings. Some still 

 showed dark spots on a gray ground; others were more 

 or less distinctly barred with broad or narrow bands; 

 others showed bars and diffused spots; and still others 

 were of a uniform slate or grayish coloration, without 

 markings of any kind. In the museum of the Cuvier 

 Club, in Cincinnati, there are quite a number of 

 mounted skins of muskellunge from the Wisconsin 

 lakes, mostly large ones. They also show all the 

 various markings, as well as those of a uniform col- 

 oration." 



When scientists disagree, what wonder that mere 

 anglers quarrel? Perhaps it will be some time before 

 the whole matter is threshed out and the status of 

 the muskellunge fixed. Till then let each angler keep 

 his temper and add his bit to the information on the 

 subject. My guess is that never will we regard all 



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