FISHES. 



169 



As food-flshes, all the Esocidsa rank high. Their flesh is white, fine-grained, dis- 

 posed in flakes, and of excellent flavor. 



The finest of the Esocidae, a species to be compared, as a grand game fish, with the 

 salmon, is the muskallunge {£Jsox nobilior). Technically, this species may be known 

 by the fact that its cheeks and opercles are both naked on the lower half. It may be 

 known also by its great size, and by its coloi", — young and old being spotted with black 

 on a golden-olive ground. 



The muskallunge is found only in the great lake region, where it inhabits the 

 deeper waters, except for a short time in the spring, when it enters the streams to 

 spawn. It often reaches a length of six feet, and a weight of sixty to eighty pounds. 

 It is necessarily somewhat rare, for no small locality would furnish food for more than 

 one such giant. It is, says Hallock, " a long, slim, strong, and swift fish, in every way 

 formed for the life it leads, that of a dauntless marauder." 



The pike (JEsox lucius) is smaller than the muskallunge, and is technically best dis- 

 tinguished by the fact that the opercles are naked below, while the cheeks are entirely 



Fig. 102. — Esox lucius, pike. 



scaly. The spots or bars in the pike are whitish or yellowish, and always paler than 

 the olive-gray ground color. It is the most widely distributed of all fresh-water fishes, 

 being found from the upper Mississippi valley, the great lakes, and New England, to 

 Alaska, and throughout northern Asia and Europe. It reaches a weight of ten to 

 twenty pounds or more, being' a large strong fish in its way, inferior only to the mus- 

 kallunge. In England, Esox lucius is known as the jiike, while its young are called 

 by the diminutive pickerel. In America, the name pickerel is usually given to the 

 smaller species, and sometimes even to Esox lucius itself, it being rather a synonym 

 for pike than its diminutive. 



Of the small pike, or pickerel, we have three species in the eastern United States. 



