FISH IN REINDEER LAKE 101 



is darker than the sides, and therefrom arises a 

 very large dorsal fin, almost a third of the length 

 of the fish, which is brilliantly spotted and streaked 

 with many lights of deep purple and greenish 

 blue ; the belly is blackish when the fish is first 

 taken from the water, but later it pales to white. 

 It is, altogether, a brilliant rainbow-tinted fish 

 when seen swimming in the clear water, but quickly 

 loses much of those glints of colour when killed. 



The Pike. — This fish, commonly called Jack- 

 fish in Canada, is that long-snouted, somewhat 

 repulsive fish that everyone knows ; and it 

 needs not description. Its flesh is quite edible 

 in northern waters, but nevertheless it is never 

 used for food by the Indians when Whitefish 

 and Trout can be got. I caught many of those 

 fish on spoon or minnow, and took one on the 

 rod weighing eighteen pounds. 



The Pickerel, an American species of Pike, 

 is very similar to the above, and was almost 

 equally common, and taken with the same lures. 



The Red Sucker is very plentiful in Reindeer 

 Lake, and in the river flowing into it, and is 

 often caught in nets along with the Whitefish. 

 It is used for dog-food, but only seldom for 

 human food, although the heads cut off and 

 boiled are often eaten by the Indians, who con- 

 sider the eyes a delicacy. The flesh is white, 

 but somewhat soft, and, if used for native food 

 at all, is dried or smoked previous to consumption. 

 In shape they are a broad-backed, round-barrelled 

 fish of equal depth and width, while below the 

 blunt-pointed snout is the puckered, toothless, 

 circular mouth from which they derive their 



