♦,./ 



184 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



nioiitli <>rili(' Mjirym'riti' ill tlic lower Sau'iiciiiiy and also lu'iir 'radoiissac 

 'I'liniisaiids too. may annually ho sron in the vicinity ol'Cliicdutimi Ix'low 

 all tlui rapids and Tails of 1 lie river, but from tlu'lact that many are 

 IouikI all wintoi- in Jjako St. John and that the usual colour of the flesh is 

 Hot so red as that of the salmon that is Unown to visit the sea, due to the 

 ditterenee in the tood su))|ilies, it may safely he assumed that few if any 

 of them ren'ularly mis^rute to salt wati-r. This is no move evidence how- 

 over, that they are land-locUed, than w«'re similar hahits on the part of 

 the salmon formei-ly so ])leiitiful in LaUe Ontario, or that the tilewives 

 introduced into the same lake in 1ST3, accoi'diny- to l)r. Heaii. are equally 

 land-locked Itecause of the jtrevailini^ im|»ressi(m amongst the tishermen 

 that they are now jiermanent inhabitants of the lake. If they are so. it 

 is from choice i-ather than necessity, there bcinu; no more obstriicti<m to 

 their descent to the sea than there is to t hat (d' the ouanani(die from Lake 

 St. .lohii. The mistake of calliiiii' tlu' latter a " land-lo(d<cd " salmon is a 

 common one and nearly as old as the literature of the subject. And the 

 supposition that if they do descend the Sa,ii"uenay, the ouanauiche are 

 unable to overcome the natural obstacles to their ascent of the discdiarge 

 of Lake St. .lohn is also erroneous, though recorded as a fact by Mr. 

 McCarth)^ in 'The Leaping Ouananitdie. " The fact is that the fish over- 

 comes greater obstacles in its ascent to its spawnii'g grounds in some of 

 the wild tributary waters of Lake St. John than any encountered by it 

 in la (jraiule (/echan/e, and in the fall of the year maybe seen in large 

 numbers successfully leaping up the fifth fall of the Mistassini, the 

 Salmon river c/iKtc of the Ashuapmoiu houan and ]iarts of the i-lnite an 

 tlidble and other cataracts of the Peribonca, often after the failure of 

 many previous ettorts. TI'cA.s^v'.s is therefore untrue to biological science 

 in defining the tish whose name it spells '■ winninisli ' to be "the land- 

 locked variety of the common salmon (Canada)." And the erroneous 

 statement occurring in the detinitiun of the word stamj)s the blunder a 

 philologicalas well as a biological one. " The fresh water salmon of 

 Canada ' would have been a more correct derinition of the name, though 

 not likely to be nearly com])rehensive enough for the wider range to be 

 covered in the near future by the original form of the word " ouanauiche." 

 Of Canadian origin, there is jiromise of its general adoption, ere long, as 

 the name of the fresh water salmon of the I'nited States as well as for 

 that of the Canadian tish. The two tish, though ditlering slightly in 

 their habits, owing to the dirt'erence in the temperature of the water of 

 their respective habitats are known to be identical in family classitication ; 

 and American writers on icthyological subjects are coming to see that 

 there is no necessity for a ditfei-ent name in the United States for the 

 ouanauiche when it occurs in American watei's, and the more so that the 

 name "land-locked salmon" by which it has hitherto been known is as 

 inappropriate and misleailing, considering the condition of its habitat, as 



