THE LAKE TROUT. 287 



The Common Lake Trout (Salmo confinis), which 

 inhabits the deepest waters of the Great Lakes, is the 

 least to be commended of all the Salmonidas, and is indeed 

 an unworthy member of the family to which it belongs, 

 never taking the fly, and even when hooked with the 

 minnow, or a bait of fat pork, ignominiously allowing 

 itself to be hauled passively into the boat. The flesh, too, 

 which is of a dirty yellow tinge, is poor and tasteless. 

 To complete its list of bad qualities, it is a voracious 

 destroyer of the young of the Coregonus albus ; pamper- 

 ing its own worthless carcase with the most delicious 

 and valuable fish of the Lakes. 



It is dark coloured, mottled over with greyish spots, 

 and is rather broad in proportion to its length ; it com- 

 monly averages from eight to nine pounds in weight, 

 though I have seen cuts on the table, at Toronto, which 

 must have come from fish of far larger size. Fish of five 

 pounds' weight up to fifteen may be caught with " the 

 spoon" in Lake Superior almost as fast as they can be pulled 

 out. In winter they are caught weighing as much as sixty 

 pounds, in some of the Lakes, through a hole cut in the ice. 



There are several varieties of Lake trout, though 

 very similar to one another in habit and qualities; the 

 Mackinaw-trout (Salmo amethystus) being the chief in 

 point of excellence as it is in size; attaining frequently 

 enormous proportions. 



