SALMONID*. 105 



of Mackinaw Salmon, by wliicli it is commonly known, is therefore a 

 misnomer, since it is no more peculiar to the straits of Michilimackinac 

 tl)an to any other locality between the Falls of Niagara and the Arctic 

 ocean. The term Namaycush, which Pennant adopted, and Dr. Rich- 

 ardson has retained, both as its English name and its scientific distinc- 

 tion, is no more than its denomination by the Cree Indians, who term it 

 Nammeooos, and I confess I think it in both respects preferable to any 

 other ; for Dr. Mitchil's scientific name Amethysius, which he gave it 

 in consequence of a faint purplish tinge perceptible on the teeth, gums, 

 and roof of the mouth, is founded on a peculiarity so slight-^I speak 

 on the authority of Prof. Agassiz — as in many specimens to be scarcely 

 distinguishable ; while it has no name in the English language defining 

 it from the Siskawitz, inhabiting the same waters, or from the common 

 Lake Trout, Salmo Confinis, of the New York and New England 

 lakes. 



It is a remarkable fact, thai at least one-half of our inland or fresh- 

 water fishes have no correct English names, no names at all in fact, 

 but such arbitrary and erroneous terms as were applied to them igno- 

 rantly, by the first English settlers in the districts in which they are 

 found, and have been adhered to since for lack not of ietter, but of 

 any real names. Thus the peculiar fish of Lake Otsego, though fully 

 ascertained to be, and scientifically distinguished as, one of the family 

 Salmonidce, and defined as Coi^gotMs Otsego, has, to this day, no other 

 appellation in the vernacular than the absurd misnomer of Otsego 

 Bass, to which species it has no relation whatsoever. The same is the 

 ease with the fish called " Trout," by the inhabitants of Carolina and 

 the neighboring States, which is mentioned as the " White Salmon," 

 by Smith, in his history of Virginia ; and which is said to abound in 

 the rivers of Pennsylvania. This is, I doubt not, the fish alluded to by 

 a recent writer in the " Spirit of the Times," as the Susquehanna 

 Salmon, unless perchance another nameless fish, the Perca iMciofercm, 

 is intended. The southern Trout is of the .Pearch family — nothing 

 more remote from Trout — though in form it has some resemblance to 

 the SalmonidcBi It is the Gristes Sahncfides of Cuvier, the Lahre 

 Salmoide of Lac^p^de, both terms indicating its family as of the 

 Pearch or Bass, and its similarity to the Salmons ; but it has no 

 English name at all, unless we adopt the vulgarism of calling it a 



