GAME AND FISH. 51 



yard. Moose must be fairly abundant, therefore, although no great num- 

 ber Avere seen, this being due chiefly to the fact that the party made no 

 attempt to go quieth^ through the woods. The animals were frequently 

 heard crashing through the underbrush. Only one caribou was seen, 

 though in portions of the district their tracks and runways were common. 

 Pickerel," wall-eyed pike,'' bass, the namaycush or lake trout, and white- 

 fish are the kinds of fish most used for food, and occur in abundance, about 

 in the order given. J\Iany of the lakes are teeming with fish, but they are 

 usually the least desirable kind, pickerel and perch. These can be obtained 

 in all of the lakes, and they are so common and relatively such a poor game 

 and food fish that the fisherman ordinarily throws them back into the lake 

 with disdain. Usually, however, he first kills the pickerel, as they are 

 the recognized enemy of the game fish. Pike are not so abundant as 

 pickerel, but they are found in most of the lakes. Bass occur in only 

 a few, but where found they are in fairly large numbers. Trout 

 (Salvelimis narnaycusli) are confined almost exclusively to the deep lakes 

 in which the water is uncolored, although they by no means occur in all 

 such lakes. Since these conditions are most commonly fulfilled in 

 the eastern portion of the district and in the lakes along the international 

 boundary and just across the boundary on Hunters Island, the trout are 

 most common in the eastern portion of the Vermilion district. In excep- 

 tional cases lake trout were found in some of the lakes with colored 

 water — for example, Ogishke lluncie — and these were slightly difi"erent 

 from the trout in the lakes with uncolored water. They are considerably 

 darker in color and appear to have proportionally heavier bodies and 

 smaller heads. They give the impression of being a heavier and slower 

 fish In the streams and lakes from Peter Lake east to Fay (Paulsons) 

 Lake trout were caught which seemed slightly different from the normal 

 lake trout They are called mountain trout by the woodsmen. They 



" Pickerel is the name commonly applied to the true pike (Esox hicms) throughout this State, as 

 well as in Wiseonsin. It is easily discriminated from the wall-eyed pike by its shovel-shaped nose and 

 the light spots on the dark background of the body. It is a fish which lives in sluggish waters, among 

 the weeds, and very near the surface of the water generally. It is very slimy and has a disagreeable, 

 strong, fishy odoi. The flesh is soft in summer. 



^The wall-eyed pike {Stkosledwn vitrewn), or pickerel, as it is sometimes called in this region — 

 sometimes dory and jack-fish — is an excellent food fish, with firm, well-flavored, white flesh. It has 

 a golden- yellow color on the sides of the belly, grading up into the darker color of the back, with dark 

 motthngs. Tnese mottlings also occur on the fins. 



