170 PICKEREL. 
D. 21 ; P. 14 ; Y. 11 ; A. 17 ; C. 26. 
And according to Dr. De Kay — 
D. 21 ; P. 13 ; Y. 11 ; A. 21 ; C. 19f 
And according to Professor Agassiz — 
D. 22 ; P. 18 ; Y. 13 ; A. 20 ; C. 26. 
This goes to show that either it is very difficult to 
count the fin-rays, or that they differ ; to the latter of 
which suppositions my belief inclines, as I think the 
older the fish the more fin-rays are formed, or so hard- 
ened as to be perceptible. 
The habits of this class of fish are as similar as their 
appearance, and whether you capture a tiny pickerel with 
your fiy in some shallow Long Island water, or entrap 
the huge mascalloDge with a treble hook half concealed 
beneath red flannel and shining tin, they rush with the 
same eagerness and grasp with the same determination. 
I amused myself one evening on Long Island in casting 
over a newly-made shallow pond with my ordinary trout 
cast of flies, and seeing the ferocity with which pickerel, 
varying from four to nine inches in length, would dart 
upon their anticipated prey. 
All pickerel inhabit sluggish water, and abound among 
the long, grassy pickerel weed that thrives upon a muddy 
bottom. The St. Lawrence, where it winds amid the 
beautiful Thousand Isles and forms innumerable deep 
and quiet bays, is their favorite home. The water, flow- 
ing from the immense lakes and holding suspended the 
seeds of aquatic plants, is favorable to the growth of 
the pickerel weed, and is in every way suitable to the 
fish themselves. The latter, however, have great j^ower, 
and can unquestionably stem a strong current, for no 
