106 AMERICAN FISHES. 



Trout, which is no less absurd than it would be to call a Pickerel, 

 Salmon. 



These prevalent misnomers, and this total absence of real and ra- 

 tional names, are of great disadvantage, creating excessive confusion, 

 and puzzling all, except the scientific naturalist. It is much to be 

 regretted that the Indian terms have not always been sustained ; for 

 when interpreted, they are almost invariably found to be truly dis- 

 tinctive ; and it is greatly to be desired that on the discovery of new 

 genera, or varieties, this system of nomenclature may be adopted, as it 

 has been by Prof. Agassiz with regard to the Siskawitz, a new lacus- 

 trine Trout, discovered by him during the past summer in the great 

 waters of Huron and Superior. 



With regard to those misnamed long ago, the misnomers of which 

 have become familiar, and as it were stereotyped by the lapse of time, 

 it is difficult to say what is to be done, or how the evil is to be reme- 

 died ; and it is to be feared that the Coregonus of Otsego will remain 

 the Otsego Bass for ever ; since [although nothing is easier than to 

 explain, and even to prove, that the fish is in no respect a Bass] when 

 he who has been -accustomed so to call it, but who is open to convic- 

 tion, enquires if I must not call him Bass, what is his name ? there is 

 no answer to the question, but that he is a Coregonus of the Salmon 

 family. 



To return, however, to the Greatest Lake Trout, Mackinaw Salmon, 

 or Namaycush it is also called^ in common with all the other large 

 Lake Trout, Salmon Trout ; but this is too absurd even to be admitted 

 as a provincial synonyme, since the Salmon Trout is a Sea Trout, and 

 is moreover found on the eastern shores of this continent. This is pro- 

 bably the largest of the Salmon family in the known world ; hence, I 

 have ventured on my own authority, to designate him as the Greatest 

 Lake Trout, in order to distinguish him not only from the Siskawitz 

 and the Salmo Confinis of DeKay, but also from the common Trout, 

 Salmo Fontinalis, when taken of large size in the small inland lakes. 



The average weight of this monstrous fish in Lake Huron is stated by 

 the fishermen to be seventeen pounds, but they are constantly taken of 

 forty pounds weight, and not at all unfrequently of sixty or seventy. 



It is stated by Dr. Mitchil, that at Michilimackinac, they have 

 been known to attain the enormous weight of one hundred and 



