338 Salmonide 
the chevron and free from the shaft. This crest is armed with 
strong teeth. There are also large hooked teeth on the hyoid 
bone, and the teeth generally are proportionately stronger than 
in most of the other species. The Great Lake trout is grayish in 
color, light or dark according to its surroundings; and the body 
is covered with round paler spots, which are gray instead of red. 
The dorsal and caudal fins are marked with darker reticula- 
tions, somewhat as in the brook-trout. This noble species is 
found in all the larger lakes from New England and New York to 
Wisconsin, Montana, the Mackenzie River, and in all the lakes 
tributary to the Yukon in Alaska. We have taken examples 
from Lake Bennett, Lake Tagish, Summit Lake (White Pass), 
and have seen specimens from Lake La Hache in British 
Columbia. It reaches a much larger size than any Salvelinus, 
specimens of from fifteen to twenty pounds weight being not 
uncommon, while it occasionally attains a weight of fifty to 
eighty pounds. As a food-fish it ranks high, although it may be 
regarded as somewhat inferior to the brook-trout or the whitefish. 
Compared with other salmonoids, the Great Lake trout is a slug- 
gish, heavy, and ravenous fish. It has been known to eat raw po- 
tato, liver, and corn-cobs,—refuse thrown from passing steamers. 
According to Herbert, “‘a coarse, heavy, stiff rod, and a powerful 
oiled hempen or flaxen line, on a winch, with a heavy sinker; a 
cod-hook, baited with any kind of flesh, fish, or fowl,—is the most 
successful, if not the most orthodox or scientific, mode of cap- 
turing him. His great size and immense strength alone give him 
value as a fish of game; but when hooked he pulls strongly and 
fights hard, though he is a boring, deep fighter, and seldom if 
ever leaps out of the water, like the true salmon or brook-trout.” 
In the depths of Lake Superior is a variety of the Great Lake 
trout known as the Siscowet (Cristivomer namaycush siskawitz), 
remarkable for its extraordinary fatness of flesh. The cause of 
this difference lies probably in some peculiarity of food as yet 
unascertained. 
The Ayu, or Sweetfish.— The ayu, or sweetfish, of Japan, 
Plecoglossus altivelis, resembles a small trout in form, habits, 
and scaling. Its teeth are, however, totally different, being 
arranged on serrated plates on the sides of the jaws, and the 
tongue marked with similar folds. The ayu abounds in all 
