THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 



muskellunge as belonging to one species, for the maker 

 of scientific names is abroad in the land, eager to have 

 his cognomen attached to some one of God's creations. 

 Suffer this word of exhortation, brothers of the angle, 

 remembering what has been said upon the marks of 

 the muskellunge: Do not say that the other fellow's 

 fish is not a true muskie simply because its coloration 

 is not like yours or was not caught from your water-shed. 



To show how restricted some would make the range 

 of the "true muskellunge," casting out all but one 

 particular form as "mere pickerel," let me quote from 

 a magazine article supposed to be authoritative: 



"Its distribution is not extensive; in fact, it seems 

 to be limited to the lakes and rivers of the Upper 

 Mississippi system and to portions of Canadian St. 

 Lawrence waters. It is a strange circumstance that 

 in the United States the muskellunge is never found 

 in the St. Lawrence waters. In Wisconsin, where the 

 watershed is narrow, and the lakes flowing into the 

 rivers which are tributary to the St. Lawrence are but 

 a quarter of a mile distant in many cases from the 

 lakes emptying into the rivers of the Mississippi 

 system, the muskellunge will be numerous in the 

 latter waters, but entirely absent from the former." 



So this author, who evidently knows the fish of his 

 district and how to angle for it, would reject as spurious 

 the so-called Chautauqua muskellunge, and with it, of 

 course, all the work accomplished at the Chautauqua 

 Hatchery by Dr. Bean and his associates, who have 

 successfully propagated what they supposed were 

 muskellunge ! The preacher may have been right, and 

 too much knowledge is a weariness to the flesh, but a 

 judicious amount will prevent some egregious errors. 



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