HABITS OF THE OUANANICHE 27 



Garman that he " takes the fresh - water individuals, 

 including of course those truly landlocked, as com- 

 monly designated, to be the better representatives of 

 the species Salmo solar? the famous American zoologist 

 may fairly be classed as a member of the large and 

 influential school of ichthyologists that regards the 

 Atlantic salmon as originally but a fresh -water fish, 

 which has acquired the habit of wandering from the 

 crystal Eden in which it was created, into the salt 

 wilderness of the sea, by its acquisition of a taste for 

 the fleshpots of the briny deep. In the sea its in- 

 creased voracity finds extended opportunities of in- 

 dulgence, and the unlimited food supply tends to its 

 rapid development in size. The authorities who 

 hold to the theory that salmon were, from the be- 

 ginning, residents of the sea, that simply ascend to 

 fresh water to spawn, claim that the smaller individ- 

 uals constantly found in inland or landlocked waters 

 are a deteriorated variety, consequent upon a change 

 of habitat and diminished food supply. The difference 

 in size between adult specimens of the salmon fresh 

 from the sea and those of the ouananiche may of 

 course be made to fit either of the above theories. 



No argument against the identity of the ouananiche 

 with the Salmo solar can be reasonably based upon 

 disparity in size, for no more natural result than ar- 

 rested development or a dwarfing of the variety could 

 follow its subjection to unfavorable conditions. "We 

 have an instance of this in the alewives of Lake 

 Ontario, introduced there, as already stated, in 1873. 

 On the Atlantic coast, the average length of this 

 species is eleven to twelve inches, but in Lake Ontario 



