SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



249 



on Lake Erie and elsewhere. From the Great Lakes, where it supports fisheries 

 of great extent, it ranges eastward to Vermont and southward to North Carohna, 

 Georgia, and Alabama. In North Carolina it has a peculiar distribution, involving 

 headwaters of the Mississippi system and also some of the rivers of the Atlantic 

 slope. Professor Cope gave the following interesting account of his observations 

 of this fish in the French Broad River in 1869: 



This is the largest percoid of the western waters, occasionally attaining a weight of .35 

 pounds; no specimen of more than 10 pounds came under my observation. It loves the most 

 boisterous and rapid streams, ascendng them to near their sources, having much the manners 

 and haunting the same waters as the trout, but of much less voracious habits. Its swiftness 

 enables it to take the black perch [ = black bass] with ease, though that fish is, after it, much 

 the most powerful swimmer of the river it inhabits. I took two from the stomach of a lucio- 

 perca [= pike perch] of 8 pounds, one of which weighed 2^ pounds. Suckers are used as bait 

 in taking them by hook; but the mode in which large specimens are most readily taken is by 

 shooting. When the lucioi)erca has gorged himself, be seeks some shallow bayou and lies in a 

 slugggish state, digesting his meal. Then the gun-fisherman, concealed in a tree close by, 

 makes sure of him. It is the most valued food fish of the French Broad, its flesh being very 

 tender as well as rich. Without the opercular armature of the Percae, its chief defense is in 

 its numerous and powerful canine teeth, which make serious wounds on the hands of the imwary 

 fisherman. The common name on the French Broad is "jack". 



Wall-eyed Pike; Pike Perch. Stizostedion vitreum. 



Dr. Jordan in 1888 had this fish reported to him as one of the food fishes of 

 the French Broad under the name of "river trout". The present writer in 1892 

 found the fish in various tributaries of Albemarle Sound, where it is knowTi under 

 some extraordinary names. In Pasquotank River it was noted that numbers of 

 pike perch 12 to 15 inches long were caught by the net fishermen, and, although 

 the fish was not sufficiently abundant to have much commercial importance, it 

 was popular locally and always met with ready sale. Under the impression that 

 it is a salt-water species which wanders into the sound, some fishermen called it 

 "salt-water pike", to distinguish it from the fresh-water pike (Esox); and the 

 name "California salmon" was also heard in the lower river, this probably based 

 on the belief that it is an introduced species. In the vicinity of Edenton it is 

 caught in pound nets and dutch nets, and is sometimes called " pickerel ". In the 

 lower Roanoke, where it is not uncommon and goes by the name of "brook 



