HABITS OF THE OUANANICHE 19 



in the lower and tidal Saguenay and to occasionally 

 come to grief upon Mr. Brackett's salmon tackle, than 

 to the typical Canadian ouananiche of Northern rap- 

 ids. Taken from one of the larger lakes in which it 

 is found — whose waters would seem to afford it a 

 home and abundance of food the whole year round — 

 a ouananiche* will Just about fit Mr. Brackett's de- 

 scription, and balance the scales with a salmon from the 

 sea of equal length. The Indians have not failed to 

 observe the close resemblance of these great lake fish 

 to the Salmo solar, and call them both " uchachoumac " 

 (ushashomek, or salmon). But take a ouananiche from 

 the seething waters of la grande decharge, from the 

 Caniapscow, the Koksoak, the Hamilton, the ISTatash- 

 quan, the Musquarro, or other of the great rapid rivers 

 of Labrador, or even from the swift, broad tributaries 

 of Lake St. John, and, both in point of gameness and of 

 beauty, he is as far ahead of his congener — painted for 

 us with so much skill and vigor by Mr. Brackett — as 

 a trout from the rapids of a mountain stream excels 

 another of the same variety from a fish-fattening pond. 

 The same general lines that form the contour of shapely 

 beauty for the naiad of the angler — the most sym- 

 metrical and most beautiful fish that swims, produc- 

 ing a form most admirably adapted to rapid motion, 

 even against powerful currents, by the regular tapering 

 from the front of the dorsal fin both to the snout and 



* Those acquainted with the pronunciation of "ouananiche" 

 (whon-nanishe or wannanishe), and who know that " ou " at the 

 commencement of a French word is given the sound of " w," will 

 understand why I invariably use the article " a " before it instead 

 of " an.'' 



