104 KENDALL: NEW ENGLAND SALMONS. 



THE LAKE SALMON (SALMO SEBAGO GIRARD). 



Plates 5-11. 

 General Considerations. 



Earlier in this memoir reference has been made to 'Landlocked Salmon.' Although 

 this name has long been recognized as a misnomer, it has been quite generally adopted 

 for a salmon which passes its whole life in fresh water. In selecting a substitute name I 

 have followed Herr von Behr (1883, p. 245) in which he says that it seems best to adopt 

 certain names for fish introduced into Germany. For landlocked salmon he uses the 

 name Amerikanische Seelachs, which, translated, is American lake salmon. The lake 

 salmon, unlike the marine salmon, are essentially inhabitants of lakes, entering streams, 

 as a rule, to spawn and at times in pursuit of food. 



The major amount of information pertaining to the sea salmon is necessarily drawn 

 from foreign countries. On the contrary very little concerning the landlocked salmon is 

 to be learned from European sources. Yet when information is sought concerning the 

 landlocked salmon in this country, it is surprising to find how little is actually known. 

 For many years the lake salmon has been the object of attention by anglers and fish 

 culturists, but it has received scarcely any biological stud3^ Indeed most of the biologi- 

 cal consideration has consisted of speculation concerning the what and why of this fish. 



In comparing angUng for sea salmon with that for landlocked salmon in this country 

 more than 60 years ago Dr. Hamlin wrote (1874, p. 339) : 'But if we cannot boast of our 

 success with the sea-salmon, we may truly exult over the game quaUties of the mysterious 

 fresh-water salmon, which inhabits five of our lake systems, and which affords as fine 

 sport as the best fish of the Tweed or the Shannon. This fish is less known to anglers 

 than to naturalists, since the latter have quarreled over its classification and made 

 known to themselves the range of its habitat. But the naturaUsts have been very careful 

 not to express themselves on paper, and hence the sporting fraternity have not been 

 able to glean much from the scientific reports concerning the disputed fish.' 



But the good doctor was wrong: the anglers actually knew more about the fish than did 

 the naturaUsts. The anglers went astray only when they tried to quahfy as systematic 

 ichthyologists, and the naturalists were remiss in that instead of making a biological 

 study of the fish they relied mainly upon the statements and claims of the 'angler- 

 naturaUsts,' and the examination of a specimen or two, if any at all. So far as the 

 ichthyological systematist is concerned nothing in pubhcation indicates that the situa- 

 tion is much different today than it was half a century ago. Furthermore the original 

 natural situation has been so disturbed by fish cultural operations, that each succeeding 

 year it becomes increasingly difficult to reach any positive conclusions concerning the 

 relationships of the fish. 



Names. 



'Silfverlax' is the Swedish name for a salmonid of Lake Wenern in southern Sweden, 

 the English equivalent for which is 'silver salmon.' The name, however, does not neces- 

 sarily signify that the fish is a salmon except in a generic sense. A species of trout is 



