SALMONIDJE. Ill 



The habits of the Mackinaw Salmon are similar to those of most of 

 the non-migratory Lake Trout ; they affect and prefer the deep waters 

 at most seasons of the year, and lie at a great depth beneath the sur- 

 face. In the spring of the. year, however, they approach the shores, 

 and are found in the shallow waters, whither, it is supposed, they pur 

 sue the various kinds of fish on which they prey, which resort thither 

 in search of larvae of various insects. They do not enter the rivers to 

 spawn, but approach the shores for that purpose in autumn, depositing 

 their ova on the gravelly shoals, and then retiring again into the depths. 

 In Lake Huron they begin to spawn about the tenth of October, and 

 return to the centre of the lake within three months from the com- 

 mencement 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 of Salmonidce. 



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

 between the innumerable islands, the Namaycush is speared by torch- 

 light in great quantities by the Indians : a cruel and wasteful devasta- 

 tion, which, though it cannot be wondered at in the untutored savage, 

 cannot be reprehended too severely when practised, as it is universally, 

 by the civilized white man, for purposes of reckless sport or illicit and 

 dishonorable 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 which 

 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 appear- 

 ance 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 Mackinaw 

 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 extraordi- 

 nary depth, in a manner similar to that practised in deep-sea fishing. 



