10 THE PIKES: DISTRIBUTION AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE. 



Frenchman. In fact, the Cree name may have been an Indianized 

 form derived from French sources or vice versa. 



The most generally known form of the spotted muskellunge is 

 native to all the Great Lakes, the upper St. Lawrence River, Lake 

 Champlain, certain streams and lakes tributary to the Great Lakes, 

 and a few lakes in the upper Mississippi Valley, also in Canada north 

 of the Great Lakes. It does not seem to be at all abundant any- 

 where, as the number taken each year in any one of the lakes is small. 

 It is, perhaps, most common in Lakes Michigan and Erie and among 

 the Thousand Islands (Jordan and Evermann, 1896). 



The barred muskellunge is best known from Chautauqua Lake, 

 though specimens have been reported from a few places in the 

 Ohio drainage — ^for instance, in Lakes Conneaut and La Boeuf, 

 Pa. ; the Mahoning River, and the Ohio, at Evansville — and a young 

 individual 8 inches long was found in 1899 or 1900 by W. P. Hay 

 in Decker Creek, above Morgantown, W. Va. (Bean, 1902a). 



The spotless form is found in a number of small lakes in northern 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota. The following waters in northern Wis- 

 consin are stated to be inhabited by this pike: Pelican Lake, Toma- 

 hawk and adjoining lakes, Arbor Vitse, St. Germain Lakes, Trout 

 Lake, the Eagle waters — i. e., a chain of lakes through which Eagle 

 River flows — Three Lakes and others connected therewith, Bucka- 

 tarbon Lake, Lac Vieux Desert, Big and Little Twin Lakes, Long 

 Lake, Sand Lake, and various others, many of wliich have not been 

 explored or named (Mosher, 1892, and Nevins, 1901). 



SIZE. 



The muskellunge has been stated to be the largest species of the 

 pike family, but, if traditions and reports are true, in Europe the 

 pike has attained a larger size than has ever been recorded for the 

 muskellunge, and there are numerous records of pike in this country 

 of fully as large size as the majority of large muskellunge. The 

 average weight of the muskellunge and the usual range of the large 

 pike perhaps are not much different except in some localities where 

 the fish have become scarce and run large. In fact in the past there 

 have arisen many disputes and discussions regarding fish which some 

 anglers chose to call muskellunge and which others decided were 

 pike. Sometimes the question was referred to the Sportsman's 

 Journal and occasionally to the United States Fish Commission. 

 Usually, however, the description of the fish was inadequate to per- 

 mit of a positive identification. 



The muskellunge has been said to reach a weight of 100 pounds 

 or more (Jordan and Evermann. 1896), but the maximum weight 

 is probably not often above 80 pounds and the average not over 

 25 or 30 pounds. 



