Section II., 1896- [ 131 ] Trans. R. S. C. 



VII. — The Philolotjj) of the Onananiche. A plea for the Ueiyxpi.ifion 

 of Frioriiy of Nomenclature. 



By E. T. I). Chambers. 



Author of tlie " Ouananiche and its Canadian Environment." 



(Communicated by Dr. Geo. Stewart, F.R.G.S., and read May 19, lcS9.5.) 



The iiitfoduction. in recent years, of large numbers of Knglish-speak- 

 in»- anjj'lers to the fresh-water salmon of Lake St. John and other Labra- 

 dor waters has produced variations most confusing in its nomenclature. 

 The following are some of the many forms of spelling the name of the 

 great game tish of northeastern Canada that have perplexed the readers 

 of modern angling and other literature : Sananiche, ouananiche, ouin- 

 naniche, ouinaniche, ouananish. winninisch, winnonish, winanishe, winin- 

 ish. wininnish, wiiininish, winnoniche, winnouiche, wananish. wananishe. 

 wannanish. wannanishe, wenanish, awenanish, ouiniirnish, onininiche, 

 ouaniche, winanis, wannoniche, owaninach, ouenanesh and ouinenish. 

 Memory recalls some other remarkable attemj^ts to reduce to writing the 

 French and Indian ])ronunciation of this fish's name, but I confine my- 

 self in this paper to the mention of the forms for the use of which at 

 present writing I can furnish avithorities. 



Ouinaniche was employed in March, 189-4, in a review of a wqw book 

 in the columns of L'Evénement newspaper of Quebec and the Eev. 

 Duncan Anderson uses it in " A Dominion Day Idyll." It also appears 

 in the literature of the X. Y., IS". H. and Hudson River RE., and is used 

 incidentally, as a sj^nonym, by Mr. J. Ci. Ayhvin Creighton. It is one 

 of the many forms of the name indiscriminately employed b}' Mr. J. M. 

 Lemoine, F.R.S.C, who at page 2(J3 of his Chasse et pêche au Canada. 

 uses also the plural form "ouinaniches." At ]iage 242 of the same work 

 Mr. Lemoine writes it '' ouinnaniche," for which spelling, however. I 

 have found no other authority, and in the appendix he gives us •• win- 

 noniche," emplo3'ing still another form in a later work, as will be seen as 

 we proceed. Mr. J. Edmond Roy, F.R.S.C., in his Voyage an pays de 

 Tadoussac, uses "ouananish." "Winninisch" is employed by C. M. 

 Palmer of Minnea]K)lis at page 71 of Favorite Flies by Mary Orvis 

 Marbury ; " winnonish " is the spelling found on a board nailed to a tree 

 on the shore of Lake Tschotagama, over filty miles up the Giïfind 

 Peribonca River, and containing the record of a fishing experience there 

 in July, 1891, by Messrs. E. J. Myers and A. W. Kœhler of Xew York ; 

 though in justice to Mr. Myers, it must be said that he invariably uses 

 ■ouananiche " in his interestine; contrilnitions to the literature of the fish 



