449 



A passing notice is due to a beautiful and brilliantly coloured fish, the Ameri- 

 can grayling (Thymallus signifer), which is found in streams in the southern 

 peninsula of Michigan and in cold clear streams in suitable places north-westerly 

 from that towards the Arctic ocean. It is possible that this species (which, it has 

 been suggested, is a relic ol the glacial period) may yet be found in the north- 

 westerly part of the Province. It attains a length of 12-18 inches, and is marked 

 by its long and high dorsal fin. Unlike the other Salmonoids it spawns in April. 



Our remaining Salmonoids are referable either to the genus Salmo, including 

 the Atlantic Salmon (Salmon salar), and its landlocked variety the Winninish, 

 and the genus Salvelinus, including the various varieties of Lake Trout 

 (8. namaycush) and of Brook Trout (S. fontinalis). 



The extreme variability of this tribe has always offered great difficulties to 

 the ichthyologist and is attributable to differences of age, sex, breeding habits, and 

 the surroundings of the fish generally. The young, for example, of the Atlantic 

 Salmon are barred, the immature males silvery, while the breeding dress of the 

 male is brilliant and the shape of the jaw different at that time. Again, Brook 

 Trout in rapid streams are brilliantly coloured, in dark lakes, uniformly sombre, 

 while sea-run individuals (Sea-Trout) have a bright silvery coat without any of the 

 ocellated spots generally so characteristic. Similarly, the same species which never 

 attains a pound weight in a small stream may through abundance of food in a 

 large body of water reach a weight of five pounds and upwards. Thus innumer- 

 able species have been made out of these local and other variations, which, how- 

 ever, may all be relegated to the three species named above. 



Apart from the vomerine teeth which mark out the Salmon proper 

 from the Charrs, the Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) presents many differences 

 from the Lake Salmon Trout. Among these may be noted the larger scales 

 (there are only 120 to the lateral line instead of 180 to 200), and the black in place 

 of the gray spots. 



The Sea Salmon can hardly be said now-a-days to be an Ontario fish. Mr. 

 Samuel Wilmot, of the Dominion Fishery Service, has recorded its disappearance 

 within the last fifteen years from Lake Ontario, the streams and creeks flowing into 

 which used to be crowded at spawning time with salmon. The disappearance is 

 unquestionably due to the drying-up of these streams consequent on the altered 

 conditions of the land drained by them, to obstacles like mill-dams preventing the 

 ascent of the fish toward the head-waters, and to the pollution of the streams by 

 sawdust and other refuse. 



It is probable that these saloicn visited the sea like the salmon of the Gult, 

 but it has been suggested, in view of the existence of the land-locked variety in 

 the lakes of Quebec (the Winninish), and of Maine (the Sebago Salmon), that pos- 

 sibly they only retired to the deep waters of the lake. 



The Sea-Salmon feeds largely on herring, but fasts for the most part during 

 its fresh-water run. This begins fcr the earliest arrivals two months before the 

 spawning time (the middle of October for the Gulf Salmon). The fish pair, and 

 both parents assist in ploughing out a series of nests in the gravel of the river- 

 bottom into which the spawn and milt are deposited, and poon covered up by the 

 sand swept down from, the nest ploughed out next above. 



< ->"/.The eggs of the salmon are of large size, a quarter of an inch in diameter, 

 and a 40 Ib. fish produces about lo,000 of these. After impregnation they 

 mature in 100 to 140 days in the Scotch rivers, but here the hatching is post- 

 poned by the colder water till May. 



f Jl '^ When hatched the young Salmon is three-quarters of an inch in length, and 

 still shows its yolk-sac for four to six weeks. After this is absorbed the fry begin 



