APPENDIX. 315 



qualities remains to make it far superior to any of the Ontario 

 fish. 



There is a large trout, or pseudo-salmon, in this magnificent 

 lake, which is sometimes confounded, by inexperienced persons, 

 with the Salmo Salar. It certainly resembles our favourite fish 

 a little in shape and colour ; but the head is coarse and clumsy, 

 and the number of the vertebras and figure of the tail are different. 

 There is also a generic difference in the fins, and the flesh is des- 

 titute of the rich red colour and genuine salmon flavour. I have 

 never heard of this fish having been caught out of the lake, and 

 am of opinion it does not visit the sea. It is probably identical 

 with the Salmo Eriox, or Bull-Trout, found in Loch AAV, in 

 Argyleshire, and three or four other lakes in Scotland. 



The abyss at Niagara is the ne plus ultra of most of the Ontario 

 fish ; and innumerable sturgeon, bass, pickerel, pike, eels, white 

 fish (a splendid corregonus), cat-fish, chubb, and mustheenongee, 

 collect there every summer. Salmon,, however, are not amongst 

 the number, and, except a stray fish, very rarely now ever go up 

 the Niagara River. 



Some naturalists have assigned fanciful reasons for this. It has 

 been gravely asserted, that a tradition respecting the insuperable 

 barrier of the Falls has been transmitted from one generation of 

 salmon to another they, therefore, think it useless to ascend, or, 

 what is equally improbable, the noise of the cataract, fifteen miles 

 distant, frightens them away. 



The fact of the non-appearance of salmon in the Niagara River, 

 appears to be easily explained. That river is deep through its 

 whole course, having no small branches, shallows, or shelving 

 shores, adapted to the wants of the breeding fish. As salmon fre- 

 quent only streams where they can prepare proper beds for the 

 spawn, and this is impossible in the Niagara River we do not 

 find them there. 



Individual fish do, however, occasionally make their way to 



