FAMILY SALMONIDA — SALMO. 239 
pointed axillary plate. Anal fin quadrate ; its extreme height 4:4, and its base 3°0; com- 
posed of twelve robust rays. Caudal fin nine inches in extent from tip to tip, furcate, with a 
sinuous margin. 
Color, from a living specimen. All the upper portion of the head and body bluish black. 
Sides of the head and body, base of the first dorsal, of the caudal and anal fins, with nume- 
rous rounded crowded irregular light grey spots. On the base of the dorsal and caudal, the 
spots are oblong, light greenish. Chin brownish bronze. Pupils black ; irides salmon-colored. 
Tips of the lower fins slightly tinged with red. 
Length, 31°3; of the head, 7°3. Weight 15 pounds. | 
Hintrays/ 14,03) Ps 14 V9 2 VAL Te Ceo 7. 
This is the well known Lake Salmon, Lake Trout or Salmon Trout of the State of New- 
York. Among the thirteen species or varieties of Lake Trout or Lake Salmon, so beautifully 
illustrated by Richardson, I cannot find this species described. It appears most nearly allied 
by the figure to S. hoodi (Pl. 82, 83 and 87), but differs in very important particulars from 
that species. It occurs in most of the northern lakes of this State, and I have noticed it in 
Silver lake, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Broome county, which, as far as I know, is its south- 
ernmost limits. I have to acknowledge my obligations to Miss Ann*Rose (now Mrs. Main), 
for a beautiful drawing of the Lake Salmon from this locality. The figure illustrating this 
species was from a specimen taken at Lake Louis, Hamilton county, and was selected for 
his unusual size and vigor. ‘The average weight is from eight to ten pounds, but I have heard 
fishermen speak of some weighing thirty pounds and even more. There is, however, sucha 
strong propensity to exaggeration in every thing pertaining to aquatic animals, that I refrain 
from citing cases derived from such sources. 
The Lake Trout furnishes an important, and often necessary article of food, to the frontier 
settler. They frequent the deepest part of the lake, and unlike most of their congeners, 
never rise to the fly. In order to take them, particular deep spots are selected and marked 
by buoys. Large quantities of small fish are then cut up and thrown in at the buoys for 
several days in succession. After having been thus baited, and accustomed to resort to the 
spot, they are then readily taken by the hook. Some idea of their abundance may be formed 
from the fact that a single fisherman has been known to capture, on Paskungameh or Long 
lake, five hundred weight in the course of a week. Its price, when salted down, is ten cents 
per pound ; but in winter when it can be preserved fresh, it sells from twelve to fourteen cents 
the pound. It has become, in these regions, an important article of commerce ; and if the 
settlers would confine themselves to bait fishing, the species would be long preserved. Un- 
fortunately, however, they are speared in great numbers in October, when they are said to 
come out in the shoal water to spawn. Any legislative enactment for their preservation, how- 
ever, would be useless in these thinly peopled districts ; and, of course, we may look for the 
gradual but certain extirpation of this species. 
The flesh is of course esteemed in these districts, where no oceanic fish is ever tasted ; 
but to me, it appears to possess all the coarseness of the halibut, without its flavor. 
