2£0 ESOCIDiE. 



THE MASCALONGE. 



Masque-allonge — Canadian French. Esox Estor — Cuvier, Agassiz. 



This magnificent fish, which is the finest, largest, and most 

 excellent food of all the Pike family, is found only in the great 

 lakes and waters of the St. Lawrence basin, not having been 

 discovered in any of the rivers or lakes which discharge them- 

 selves into Hudson's Bay or the Polar Sea, nor yet, so far as I 

 have been able to ascertain, in any of the smaller lakes of the 

 United States which shed their waters northerly into the 

 St. Lawrence. It is stated that "in the spring, which is its 

 spa^^ning season, it frequents the small rivers that fall into Lake 

 Simcoe " — which discharges itself by the Severn into Lake 

 Huron — and that "it feeds on small, gelatinous, green balls, 

 which grow on the sides of banks under water, and on small 

 fishes." 



This great Pike is said, by Dr. Richardson, to attain the 

 weight of twenty-eight pounds, but it unquestionably grows to 

 a much larger size, though I cannot state with precision the 

 greatest dimensions that he has been known to acquire. Dr. 

 Dekay says that he has been known to exceed four feet in 

 length, which, having in view the breadth and depth of this fish 

 when in condition, would give a probable weight of sixty or 

 eighty pounds, which I believe to approach his maximum. He is 

 a bold and most voracious fish. 



The cut accompanying this article and the following descrip- 

 tion are taken from a specimen preserved in spirits, in the 



