Chambers. — The Maskinonge. 173 



it again, and in all legal enactments where there is reference to it the name of 

 the fish is writtn Biaskinonge, I willingly accpt the modification instead of 

 either the Indian ov the French name. Thus much in explanation of naming 

 a fish which has puzzled most ichthyologists and anglers, so that they have 

 been uncertain and dubious on the point. The name is maskinonge. 



And to emphasize his concluding statement, Mr. Scott printed 

 the name in small capitals. 



I might continue to quote from other distinguished writers 

 of fish and fishing, notably from Mr. Whitcher, from Mr. Wilmot, 

 from L. Z. Joncas, from Professor Ramsay Wright, of the Univer- 

 sity of Toronto; from A. N. Montpetit, author of the exhaustive 

 book entitled "Les Poissons d'eau douce du Canada" ; from Cas- 

 tell Hopkins, in his "Cyclopedia of Canada"; from Sir James M. 

 LeMoine, D. C. L., in "Les Pecheries du Canada," and from many 

 more, did time and space permit ; though I am satisfied that enough 

 has been said to show that the employment of the form "masca- 

 longe" is far from being as general as some suppose and that if 

 uniformity of nomenclature is to be looked for in the case of the 

 fish in question, with any prospect of success, it must be upon the 

 basis of the name by which it has been officially known for con- 

 siderably over half a century in the country in which it was first 

 found and described by white men — which has received the general 

 indorsement of writers upon fish and fishing — and which by Mr. 

 Genio C. Scott, in 1849, and by the North American Fish and 

 Game Protective Association in 1904, has been alike declared to be 

 "maskinonge." 



However, the Bard of Avon, whose frequent references to 

 hook and line shows that he was quite as well up in angling as in 

 botany, is authority for the statement that "a rose by any other 

 name smells quite as sweet," and no matter how we spell the name 

 of the great game fish of the St. Lawrence, the angler who takes it 

 with becoming tackle, will find that he has a foeman worthy of 

 his steel. 



This is not going to be a monograph on the maskinonge for 

 there are already excellent ones in print, but you may be interested 

 in a few captures of the fish that have occurred in recent years in 

 some Canadian waters. There the favorite fishing grounds are in 

 the St. Lawrence, a little below where the boundary line between 

 Ontario and Quebec crosses the river. Other popular resorts of 

 the fish are in the neighborhood of Vaudreuil and Isle Perrot, 



