DOUBTFUL VARIETIES. 45 



territory as Great Britain, every water of which has been 

 explored, and, it may be presumed, almost every fish submitted 

 to the examination of scientific men, great doubts yet exist con- 

 cerning many forms, especially of this family of Salmonidie, 

 whether they are absolutely distinct, or merely casual varieties, 

 incapable of reproduction. 



In this country, with its boundless lakes and gigantic rivers 

 — all those to the northward and eastward, and all those feeding 

 the tributaries, or lying in the vast basin, of the St. Lawrence, 

 as well as all those on the western or Pacific coast, flowing 

 down through the Sacramento and Columbia, or wasting in the 

 arid sands or wet morasses of the Great Central Basin, all 

 teeming with varieties, perhaps distinct species of the Salmon — 

 what a vast, what an unexplored field for the sportsman, the 

 naturalist; and how doubly charming for him who unites in 

 one individual both capacities ! But two distinct varieties of the 

 American Lake Trout, or at the most three, are as yet made 

 out — for I think it doubtful whether there be any positive 

 grounds on which to establish a distinction between the Salmo 

 Confinis of Dekay, known in the Eastern States and New 

 York as the common Lake Trout, and the Salmo Amethystus of 

 Mitchil, known as the Mackinaw Salmon. The Salmo Siska- 

 witz of Agassiz, discovered in the course of the past summer in 

 Lakes Superior and Huron, is clearly a marked and permanent 

 species. That there is yet one other distinct species, the Sebago 

 Lake Trout, 1 fully believe, but only having heard of it by oral 

 description, 1 dare not take upon myself, without examination 

 and comparison, to decide the question. 



Again ; another huge fish is constantly mentioned as taken at 



