452 



eggs are small and very numerous, as many as 100,000, and are deposited in shal- 

 low places or overflowed tracts The hatching process lasts fourteen days. Of the 

 two fish, the maskinonge is the more valuable and is especially common in the 

 smaller lakes such as Lake Simcoe, Rice Lake, Scugog, etc. Further details are 

 desirable with regard to the comparative distribution of the two species in the 

 Province and of their spawning habits. 



The only other family of physostomous fishes represented in the Province is 

 that of the eels (Anguillid^), distinguished by their elongate snake-like body 

 covered with obscure concealed scales, and possessing well-developed pectoral fins, 

 but no ventrals, while the dorsal and anal are confluent round the tail. 



There is only one species, Anguilla rostrata, which is common in all rivers of 

 the continent discharging into the Atlantic, but appears to be absent from our 

 Hudson's Bay system. It has been asserted that its introduction into the lakes 

 above Lake Ontario is comparatively recent. 



In Europe eels are believed to spawn only in the sea and to die 

 thereafter. The males are small in size (15-16 inches in length) and do not 

 leave the sea for any distance, so that only immature females take part in the 

 spring upward migration and are found high up in the rivers where they remain 

 till they are mature ; they then descend to the sea — the downward migration is 

 in October, when immense numbers are captured in V-shaped traps — where they 

 meet the males for the first time. It is probable, however, that the habit of re- 

 turning to the sea to spawn which is characteristic of the species has been dis- 

 carded in the case of those which live in large bodies of fresh water like our 

 lakes. Further information on this point is desired. 



The eels are found on spawning grounds of other fish, but they are not ex- 

 clusively spawn-eaters, for they devour nearly all kinds of aquatic animals, and 

 attack even the fish in the gill-nets to the despair of the fisherman. It is con- 

 sidered an excellent food-fish by many, and is taken for this purpose in consider- 

 able quantities. 



PHYSOCLYSTL 



The Physoclystous fishes, to which we now proceed, are not only marked by 

 the absence of a duct communicating between the air-bladder and the intestine, 

 but by the far forward position of the ventral fins (thoracic or even jugular), and 

 by the spines which largely replace the soft rays of the dorsal and anal fins of the 

 preceding soft-finned fishes. 



With the exception of the Sandre, (Pickerel as it is called in Ontario, or Dore 

 in Quebec), there is no fish belonging to this group which can be said to be of 

 importance to the Fisheries, but there are numerous forms of interest to the sports- 

 man, and among them the members of three closely allied families, the Percidffi, 

 Centrarchidse and Serranidse, of which the perch, black bass and striped bass, may 

 be mentioned as types. The rounded form of the body in the perch family is very 

 different from the deep and compressed form of the two other groups, while the 

 most important difference between these is that the pseudobranch is present in 

 the striped bass and its allies. Again the perch and the striped bass have two 

 separate dorsal fins, while tiiese are confluent in the black bass and sunfishes. 



