OTHEE FISH AND GAME 257 



The scenery of the Jacques Cartier is of the most 

 picturesque description, and there is beauty enough in 

 the mountains which hem it in to recall the grandeur 

 of the Saguenay. Among the products of its waters, of 

 the value of which nothing seems to be known, is the 

 fresh- water, pearl-bearing mussel, which I have found 

 here and elsewhere in the park in unusually large 

 quantities. It is a lamellibranchiate moUusk, known 

 by the generic name of Unionidoe or Ifaiadm, exactly 

 similar to those which have produced so many really 

 valuable pearls in other parts of the province. 



Of the handsome colors and markings of \hefonti- 

 nalis of Canadian waters it is unnecessary to speak to 

 those who have seen them. In their wild and hilly 

 northland home these fish are never found infested 

 with parasites or lice, such as those described by "Wal- 

 ton in speaking of the inmates of sluggish English 

 streams, unless it be in some occasional swampjr lake 

 or creek. The trout parasites of portions of the United 

 States are virtually unknown in Canada. The rapid 

 waters of the Quebec and Labrador streams, and the 

 pebbly bottom of most of the lake and river beds, 

 make of their abode a perfect fish sanitarium. The 

 comparative freedom from molestation of these trout, 

 and the practically unlimited extent of the waters 

 which they roam, have caused them to so increase and 

 multiply and replenish the waters that in no other 

 part of the world, perhaps, are they found in such 

 abundance. The immense breadth and depth of the 

 lakes and rivers that they inhabit, and their enormous 

 food supply in the shape of minnows and the young 

 of chub and other white fish, enable them to attain to 



