Fish jVohs atid Queries. 



359 



hours, during which the hill strength of the fish 

 bears upon the rod in the towing process. It is 

 to relieve this strain that the device shown in 

 the illustration has been adopted. It is made of 

 sole leather and the cuts show its method of 

 construction. 



The Ouananiche of Lake St. John.^' 



Since the appearance of Dr. Henshall's 

 "Book of the Black Bass" several years ago, 

 no other book has been published in this 

 country which will prove so full of interest to 

 the angling fraternity as will this volume on 

 the ouananiche. Besides the "Preface "and a 

 very readable Introduction by Col. Andrew 

 Haggard, brother of the novelist, H. Rider 

 Haggard, the book contains fourteen chapters 

 concerning the habits and distribution of the 

 ouananiche, where to find it, and how to catch 

 it, and extremely readable descriptions of many 

 of the great rivers and lakes in which it is 

 found. Detailed descriptions are given of a 

 number of tours which the angler in quest of 

 the ouananiche might take. One chapter is 

 devoted to the other fishes and game of the 

 region, and one to the Montagnais Indians and 

 their folk-lore. All the chapters are well 

 written and full of interest. One may get from 

 them a vast amount of book information about 

 the ouananiche, and many an angler, after read- 

 ing its pages, will put the book in his trunk with 

 the rest of his outfit and betake himself to the 

 home of the ouananiche and there make its 

 personal acquaintance. 



The ouananiche, according to Mr. Chambers, 

 is found not only in the Lake St. John region 

 north of Quebec, but in many streams tributary 

 to the lower St. Lawrence River, and northward 

 on the south, east, and north slopes of the great 

 central table-land of Labrador as far north as 

 Ungava Bay. It is not known to occur in the 

 waters tributary to Hudson Bay. 



Concerning the game qualities of the ouan- 

 aniche as found in the Grande Decharge, Mr. 

 Chambers says: "In the vicinity of these 

 rapids the fish can know nothing of the life of 

 indolence and luxurious ease that conduces to 

 enervation and effeminacy. The very e.xcite- 

 ment and unrest of their surroundings render 

 inactivity impossible to them, while the physical 



[*The Ouananiche and its Canadian Environment, by 

 E. T. D. Chambers. Harper & Brotfters, Publishers, 

 New York.] 



exertion necessarily employed in their constant 

 struggle amid the mighty forces of those turbu- 

 lent waters insures for them the possession of 

 that courage, agility, and strength that make 

 them the recognized champions of the finny 

 warriors of Canadian waters. In proportion to 

 their avoirdupois they can do more tackle- 

 mashing than any other fish that swims. Their 

 leaps are prodigious. Habituated to overcome 

 obstacles to their progress up-stream by 

 throwing themselves over them through the 

 air, their skyward somersaults and aerial con- 

 tortions, when hooked, leave the angler little 

 leisure for contemplation while the struggle is 

 in progress. When it is understood that a five- 

 pound ouananiche will frequently leap three 

 feet or more out of water in his endeavor to get 

 free, and perhaps a dozen times in succession, 

 some idea may be formed of the skill necessary 

 to bring him safely to the net." 



The author maintains that the ouananiche, 

 the Sebago or land-locked salmon, and the 

 Atlantic salmon are all not only specifically 

 identical, but that such differences as are shown 

 among them are not even sufficient to set off 

 the Sebago salmon and the ouananiche as sub- 

 species. With perhaps a single exception, all 

 ichthyologists who have considered the matter 

 have regarded them as representing two pretty 

 well-marked varieties of the Atlantic salmon, 

 and well worthy of subspecific rank. The 

 Sebago or land-locked salmon, which occurs 

 in certain New England waters, w as described 

 in 1853 as Salnio sebago by Girard ; and the 

 ouananiche has recently been described by 

 Eugene McCarthy in Jordan and Evermann's 

 Fishes of North and Middle America under the 

 name Salmo salar ouananiche. According to 

 this view the proper names of the three fishes 

 are as follows: — 



Atlantic salmon, — Salmo salar, Linnaeus. 

 Sebago salmon, — Salmo salar sebago, Girard. 

 Ouananiche, — Salmo salar ouananiche (Mc- 

 Carthy M. S. ) Jordan & Evermann. 



Although Mr. Chambers says in one place 

 that "anatomically there is no difference 

 whatever between the ouananiche and the 

 Salmo salar,'' he elsewhere calls attention to 

 anatomical differences which are more than 

 sufficient to set off the ouananiche as a well- 

 marked variety fully entitled to a trinomial 

 name. Mr. Chambers's conception of what 

 constitutes a "species" or a "subspecies" is 

 evidently not that of most systematists. But 

 this is not a matter which will make the book 



