304 THE MUSKELLUNGE, MUSCALINGA, OR LAKE PIKE. 



reverse ; and so from head to tail not excepting his fins, which 

 were too long or too short, too wide or too narrow, or too 

 far apart or too close together. Some would have him a 

 salmon trout, and others would not let him be a trout at all, 

 and still others said he was a salmon, and nothing else. And 

 in this manner was this correct subject of the painter's study 

 criticized, because he happened, like the Belgian Giant or 

 Daddy Lambert, to grow higher or broader, grosser or coaler 

 than the rest of his species. If a pike in his youthful days must 

 be called a pickerel, in manhood a pike, and when in larger 

 waters he enlarges in size, or increases in age, a muskellunge ; 

 why should not the trout or basse be called by some other name 

 when he comes to manhood or full size 1 The same in 

 regard to the salmon ; when young, he has some half dozen 

 names, such as parr, grilse, smelt, smolt, pink, &c. With 

 equal propriety we might call our own species by different 

 names in different stages of growth and forms of development. 

 Brother anglers, let us simplify instead of mystify, and avoid 

 the multiplication of names that only serve to mislead those 

 who would otherwise arrive at just conclusions. But to our 

 subject. 



The following description of the muskellunge is taken from 

 the New York Fauna. Body cylindrical, elongate, somewhat 

 quadrate ; scales thin, small, orbicular, ascending on the 

 cheeks; the upper part of the head smooth; snout broad, 

 rounded, and depressed ; head covered with numerous pores on 

 the summit and sides ; an oblong cavity between the orbit? ; 

 mouth very large, a single row of small recurved teeth in the 

 anterior part of the upper and lower jaw ; sides of the lower 

 jaw with long acute distant teeth ; bonds of small teeth on the 

 vomer and palatines ; a series of minute teeth on the bronchial 

 arches ; tongue truncate, with asperities on its base ; bronchial 

 rays eighteen ; the dorsal fin with twenty rays, of which the 



