232 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Salvelinus namaycush (Wallb.). 

 Machinate Trout; Salmon Trout. 



Jordan and Gilbert, 1882, 8, 317 ; Jordan, 1884, 13, 485, pi. 191. 



Body of moderate elongation, the depth in the length four times. 

 Head in length four and one-half times, the upper surface flattened, the 

 snout pointed. Mouth large, the maxillary extending back beyond the 

 eye. Teeth well developed ; the vomer and the hyoid armed. Dorsal 

 rays, eleven ; anal, eleven. Scales, one hundred and eighty-five to two 

 hundred and five. Color, dark above, sometimes almost black, with 

 numerous circular spots of gray or reddish. Size large, three feet or 

 more. 



Great Lake region. As a resident of the whole of Lake Michigan 

 this species may be included among Indiana fishes (14-, No. 2, 54). 



Prof. Milner (11, '72-73, 35) gives us some information regarding 

 this fish. He says that it is one of the three most numerous fishes of 

 the Great Lakes, and attains the greatest weight of any fish of the lakes, 

 except the Sturgeon. The weight may reach as much as thirty-six 

 pounds, but averages about fifteen. The flesh while fresh is about equal 

 to that of the white-fish, but not so good when salted. The flesh is often 

 red, although the fish does not eat crustaceans. The food consists prin- 

 cipally of Coregonus hoyi and probably other of the smaller fishes. They 

 were not found to eat the white-fish, as the fishermen supposed they did. 

 The Mackinaw trout is a ravenous feeder. It is not an unusual thing 

 for one to swallow a fish too large for its stomach and to swim about with 

 the tail protruding until the head is digested. They are ready to swal- 

 low any kind of offal thrown from a ship, and they take the hook readily. 

 The spawn is deposited about the last of October. For this purpose the 

 fishes seek a rocky bottom at a depth of from seven feet to fifteen fathoms. 

 They are known to spawn along the western coast of Lake Michigan 

 from Racine northward ; and on the eastern coast from St. Joseph north- 

 ward. Each female may contain about 14,000 eggs. These hatch about 

 the last week of January, if not too much retarded by cold weather. 



Dr. H. M. Smith (4, '92, 202) discusses the present status of the fish 

 in Lake Ontario. The catch of the trout has decreased rapidly within 

 the last few years. The average size of the fish taken in trout nets is 

 probably eight pounds. 



This is one of the fishes to which the attention of the United States 

 Fish Commission has been directed. In 1885 a considerable number of 

 the young were introduced into the waters of Lake Michigan along the 

 Indiana shore. 



