22 THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



The White Fish [Coregonus Aldus) and the Otsego Bass [Core- 

 gonus Otsego) are partially raigratory from the deeper waters of 

 the lakes which they inhabit. All the Silurida, Cyprinidce, and 

 EsocidfS are stationary fish. 



Three or four of the above species and varieties I have 

 admitted with no small doubt, and first of these, in the family 

 Salmonida, the Common Lake Trout* [Salmo Confinis), of Dekay; 

 because I can see no sufficient cause for distinguishing this fish 

 from the Greatest Lake Trout, or Mackinaw Salmon, with which 

 it appears to me to be identical, except in size; whereas, size 

 alone is a very insufficient cause of separation. Secondly, the 

 Sebago Lake Trout, which is to be found, as a distinct variety, in 

 no work on American Ichthyology ; and yet I have thought it 

 best to insert it on the authority of several distinguished 

 sportsmen, who have had frequent opportunities of comparing it 

 with the ordinary Lake Trout, and who pronounce it to be a 

 new and nondescript fish, unless it be the true Salmon degene- 

 rated. This last hypothesis I am unwilling to listen to, as I 

 disbelieve in the degeneration of animals, in peculiar localities, 

 unless confined under unnatural circumstances, as a sea-running 

 fish in fresh water, without means of egress. I understand that 

 this Sebago Trout has access to the sea; there is no reason, 

 therefore, why, if originally a true Salmon, it should have lost 

 its true characteristics in waters having their exit through the 

 Saco, more than in those which discharge via the Kennebec ; 

 or why it should continue to run up a small river, when it has 



* With regard to the varieties of Lake Trout, of which there are certainly tlu-ee 

 entirely distinct, the Amethyst us, the Sislmvitz, and the Confinis, it is again much to be 

 regretted that no distinguishing names have been given, all passing indiscriminately 

 under the general term of Lake Trout. 



