CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE MUSKELLUNGE, MUSCALINGA, OR LAKE PIKE. 

 Essax Estor. 



THIS capital fish, from his size, if for no better reason, 

 deserves more attention than we have given him in former 

 pages. By some naturalists he is classed as a distinct species, 

 and different from the ordinary pike or pickerel of the ponds 

 and rivers, but ichthyologists generally consider him nothing 

 more than a monstrous fresh water pike,* or " Jack" as he is 

 called in England. While on this subject, it may be well to 

 remark that there are in some ponds and small creeks, a 

 species of stunted pickerel that grow to about the size of from 

 three to six inches, and never attain to a greater length ; 

 they seem not to have the same rapacious habits as the true 

 pickerel which grows to pikehood, and are often found in trout 

 streams, where they are said to be harmless, as would natural- 

 ly be the case, for from his limited dimensions he could not do 

 much harm. The appearance, especially when large, of the 

 various inhabitants of the waters, they being more coarse, ill- 

 shaped, and less symmetrical, leads many inexperienced persons 

 to call them by different names, and consider them different 

 species, though, in fact, often the same. This fish, also, in his 

 variety of size and age, has been a subject of much discussion 

 among the knowing ones. The writer recollects the many re- 

 marks made upon a portrait of a very large trout, hung in a 

 place of resort for the fraternity. With some his head was too 

 large and his tail too small, others his head too small and his tail 

 too large ; some would have his tail more square, and others 

 more forked ; some said his eyes were too small, and others the 



* In Ireland and Scotland they have been taken weighing eighty and 

 ninety pounds. 



