GENERA OF GAME FISH. 17 



It will be well to observe here^ that I consider all those fish 

 which run up rivers and streams into the fresh water, for the 

 purpose of spawning, which pass a considerable portion of the 

 year, and are principally, if not wholly, taken in such water, 

 as fresh-water fishes; although a resort to the salt water is 

 necessary to the reinvigoration of their constitutions ; and it is 

 probable, to the excellence of their flesh, and the courage and 

 boldness of their tempers. 



To this class belong several of the finest and most important 

 of all our fish, both as regards the table and the sport ; for to 

 this are directly referable the Salmon, that king of the piscine 

 world, the Sea Trout, the Striped Bass, the Shad, and the 

 Smelt; both of which, for reasons which I shall give when I 

 am to treat of them under their own proper heads, I admit as 

 Game Fishes. 



Our fresh-water fishes, then, all belonging to the two classes 

 above named, Malacopterygii, soft-finned, and Acanthopterygii, 

 or spiny-finned, are divided into the following families : — 



Of the first. Abdominal Malacopterygii, we have 



I. — The family of Salmonid^, of which the true sea Salmon is 

 the type, and of which there are many varieties and sub-genera, 

 both migratory and non-migratory ; the principal are — 



Genus Salmo. 



The True Salmon {Salmo Salar). 



The Greatest Lake Trout. — Mackinaw Salmon {Salmo 



Amethystus) . 

 The Northern Lake Trout. — ■ Siskawitz {Salmo 

 Siskawitz) . 



