480 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



or other of these trouts turning up in lakes where their pres- 

 ence was unsuspected. It is, therefore, not unlikely, when 

 their geographical distributions are better worked out, that 

 this seeming partiality to certain waters may, after all, be 

 more apparent than real. Further, it appears that their 

 claims to be considered distinct species, rest altogether on cer- 

 tain minor details of structure and coloring in each, which, 

 however, have been further abridged by late researches. 



I therefore and for other reasons believe all lake trouts 

 to be non-migratory, and to partake of peculiarities produced 

 by habitat. For example, the Seneca and Canandaigua lake 

 trouts are far more beautiful and finer flavored than the Ca- 

 yuga Lake trout. The reason may be that the two former 

 lakes are more profound and of mineral bottom, while the 

 latter is shallow, with vegetable bottom. These lake trouts 

 are gray-bodied, more or less clouded according to age (the 

 young only being clouded), and they are further marked 

 with vermicular tracery, and have fins placed like those of 

 the salmon, but not the same shape. They are fork-tailed, 

 but not so finely lined in all their proportions. The trout 

 of Moosehead Lake and of a few lakes in New Brunswick 

 are said to be the best for the table. They are scarce, and 

 are never found south of the Boston fish markets. 



The namaycush is one exception to all other lake trouts, 

 being what is termed, on page 265, the Mackinaw trout, its 

 habitat being Lake Superior. This fish is supposed by nat- 

 uralists to be a distinct family of lake trout. It is larger 

 than any other lake trout, and a more delicate and succulent 

 fish than any other confinies, except the siscowet and those 

 of Maine and New Brunswick. 



The namaycush is generally taken in winter through the 

 ice by hand-lines; for it would be superfluous to troll for 

 him in summer in fifteen hundred feet depth of water, as 

 there is no summer market for him, and the angler can find 

 abundant sport more attractive. 



"A distinction between the Mackinaw salmon (namaycush) 



