SALMONID^E. 105 



of Mackinaw Salmon, by which it is commonly known, is therefore a 

 misnomer, since it is no more peculiar to the straits of Michilimackinac 

 than to any other locality between the Falls of Niagara and the Arctic 

 ocean. The term Namaycush, which Pennant adopted, and Dr. Rich- 

 ardson has retained, both as its English name and its scientific distinc- 

 tion, is no more than its denomination by the Cree Indians, who term it 

 Nammecoos, and I confess I think it in both respects preferable to any 

 other ; for Dr. Mitchil's scientific name Amethystus, which he gave it 

 in consequence of a faint purplish tinge perceptible on the teeth, gums, 

 and roof of the mouth, is founded on a peculiarity so slight I speak 

 on the authority of Prof. Agassiz as in many specimens to be scarcely 

 distinguishable ; while it has no name in the English language defining 

 it from the Siskawitz, inhabiting the same waters, or from the common 

 Lake Trout, Salmo Confinis, of the New York and New England 

 lakes. 



It is a remarkable fact, that at least one-half of our inland or fresh- 

 water fishes have no correct English names, no names at all in fact, 

 but such arbitrary and erroneous terms as were applied to them igno- 

 rantly, by the first English settlers in the districts in which they are 

 found, and have been adhered to since for lack not of better, but of 

 any real names. Thus the peculiar fish of LakeOtsego, though fully 

 ascertained to be, and scientifically distinguished as, one of the family 

 Salmonidcc, and defined as Coregonus Otsego, has, to this day, no other 

 appellation in the vernacular than the absurd misnomer of Otsego 

 J3ass, to which species it has no relation whatsoever. The same is the 

 case with the fish called " Trout," by the inhabitants of Carolina and 

 the neighboring States, which is mentioned as the " White Salmon," 

 by Smith, in his history of Virginia ; and which is said to abound in 

 the rivers of Pennsylvania. This is, I doubt not, the fish alluded to by 

 a recent writer in the " Spirit of the Times," as the Susquehanna 

 Salmon, unless perchance another nameless fish, the Perca Ludoperca, 

 is intended. The southern Trout is of the Pearch family nothing 

 more remote from Trout though in form it has some resemblance to 

 the Salmonida. It is the Gristes Salmotdes of Cuvier, the Labre 

 Salmo'ide of Lacepede, both terms indicating its family as of the 

 Pearch or Bass, and its similarity to the Salmons ; but it has no 

 English name at all, unless we adopt the vulgarism of calling it a 

 8 



