MODE OF CATCHING. 141 



lake witliin three months from the commencement of the 

 movement. The young fry of this fish has been examined by 

 Professor Agassiz, and found to possess the same lateral bands 

 or markings which were formerly believed to be peculiar to the 

 Parr alone, but which are, in all probability, common to every 

 species of the family o^ Salmonida. 



During its stay, at the spawning season, in the shallow 

 channels between the innumerable islands, the Namaycush is 

 speared by torchlight, in great quantities, by the Indians — a 

 cruel and wasteful devastation, which, though it cannot be 

 wondered at in the untutored savage, cfinnot be reprehended 

 too severely when practised, as it is universally, by the civilised 

 white man, for purposes of reckless sport or illicit and dis- 

 honourable gain. In the fur countries they are sometimes 

 taken in the autumn with nets; but the season when it is 

 captured in the greatest abundance is in the months of March 

 and April, during w^hich it is taken by thousands on cod-hooks, 

 baited with small fish set in holes cut through the ice, in eight 

 or nine fathoms water. It will not be amiss here to state, that 

 when the ice is formed of snow partially melted and recongealed, 

 so as to be opaque, presenting an appearance like that of 

 ground glass, neither this nor any other of the Trout family 

 will take the bait. 



During the mid-summer and mid-winter months the Macki- 

 naw Salmon is rarely seen or captured, as during those seasons 

 it lies in the deepest waters in the centre of the great lakes, so 

 that it can be fished for only with a drop-line and heavy 

 plummet at an extraordinary depth, in a manner similar to that 

 practised in deep-sea fishing. 



Of the more scientific and exciting methods of angling for 



