THE COMMON GAR PIKE. 



{Lepisosteus osseus.) 



Though nothing that has been created 

 is without some value in the economy of 

 Nature, the fisherman to the manor born 

 often exclaims, """The Gar Pike is a 

 wholly useless fish ! Better were the 

 waters if this fish had never been cre- 

 ated !" Many fishes have been protected 

 by legislation, but it is seldom that fishes 

 have been doomed to destruction by an 

 act of a legislative body. This, however, 

 happened to the Gar Pikes that formerly 

 lived in the waters of Lake Chautauqua. 

 "In 1896 and 1897, at the request of the 

 Farmers' and Citizens' Game and Fish 

 Protective Association of Chautauqua 

 County, New York, two special appro- 

 priations of one thousand dollars and five 

 hundred dollars, respectively, were made 

 by the legislature for the destruction of 

 the Gar Pike or Bill-fish, which were be- 

 lieved to be destroying the young bass 

 and muskallunge in Lake Chautauqua. 

 In 1896 netting for these fish was begun, 

 and was continued in May and on into 

 July, 1897. In 1896 there were caught 

 and killed two thousand six hundred and 

 six Bill-fish. The next year one thou- 

 sand three hundred and sixteen were 

 killed/' It would seem that the Gar 

 Pikes are easily exterminated, for since 

 that time but few of them have been 

 taken from the lake. 



The fish that we illustrate is the com- 

 mon Gar Pike of the lakes and rivers of 

 the United States, and is quite abundant, 

 especially in certain districts, from the 

 New England States to Mexico. It is 

 a variable species, and is known by a 

 number of local popular names ; it is 

 quite generally called the Long-nosed Gar 

 or the Bill-fish. So variable is this fish 

 that it has been named by a number of 

 authorities who believed the specimens 

 which they studied were representatives 

 of a new species. This has given rise to 



a multiplicity of Latin names, which are 

 now considered synonyms of the one 

 given at the beginning of this article. 



All the Gar Pikes, of which there are 

 five species, belong to the genus Lepisos- 

 teus, a name derived from two Greek 

 words meaning bony scales. Four of the 

 species are found only in the waters of 

 North America. The fifth species is 

 ifound in China. All live only in fresh 

 water; have very sluggish habits, and 

 are extremely voracious and destructive 

 to smaller fishes. The flesh of all Gar 

 Pikes is tough and rank. Though it is 

 usually thrown away as worthless, it is 

 said that some negroes of the South pre- 

 fer its flesh as a food to that of the cat- 

 fish. The Gar Pikes are of great inter- 

 est to the geologist, for they are among 

 the few living representatives of prolific 

 orders of geologic ages. 



Prof. Alexander Agassiz, who made a 

 careful study of the life history of the 

 Gar Pike, has given an interesting ac- 

 count of the characteristics of its eggs 

 and of the young fish. He says : "The 

 eggs are large, viscous, stick fast in an 

 isolated way to whatever they fall upon, 

 and look much like those of toads, having 

 a laree outer membrane and a small yolk. 



"The young Gar Pike moves very slow- 

 ly, and seems to float quietly, save an ex- 

 ceedingly rapid vibration of the pectorals 

 and the tip of the tail. They do not swim 

 about much, but attach themselves to 

 fixed objects by an extraordinary horse- 

 shoe-shaped ring of sucker-appendages 

 about the mouth. These appendages re- 

 main even after the snout has become so 

 extended that the ultimate shape is hinted 

 at ; and, furthermore, it is a remnant of 

 this feature which forms the flesh v bulb 

 at the end of the snout in the adult." 



Champlain, while visiting in 1600, the 

 lake that bears his name, wrote of a large 



225 



U« |«II« HM I 1 II M» I « ' Itl l iiUH 



