132 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



scription. There are fourteen branchial rays. The dorsal fin, 

 which is one-eighth the length of the body, has eighteen rays ; 

 pectorals fifteen ; ventrals (midway between snout and end of 

 the caudal), fifteen rays ; anal (slightly posterior to the dorsal), 

 fifteen. The caudal is bilobed, rather than forked ; it has 

 eighteen rays reaching the posterior margin, and two or 

 three stout rudimentary rays above and below them ; the 

 upper lobe of the caudal is the longer. 



For want of a better artist, I was in<^uced five or six years 

 since, when on a visit to the Thousand Isles, to try my hand 

 for the first time on this fish ; and with the aid of an inch 

 measure — for it is a purely mechanical production — made as 

 correct a drawing as I could. The figure at the head of this 

 article is a reduced copy of it. As I had never seen the pecu- 

 liar markings of this fish correctly drawn, I took some pains to 

 do so. My description is from one taken at the same time. 



This fish is known about the Thousand Isles as the Marsh 

 Pickerel, and is found more generally in the coves and on the 

 flats than in the deep water. The "Channel Pickerel," which 

 I suppose to be another species, is a more symmetrical fish, 

 with less fulness of body between the dorsal fin and the tail. 

 It has a yellow instead of a leaden tinge. The markings are 

 three times as numerous and about one-third the size, though 

 of the same shape as those of the Marsh Pickerel ; it is found 

 generally in deep water. There is a third variety, which is 

 shorter in the body than either of these, but the color and 

 markings the same as the Marsh Pickerel ; some of them, 

 though, are the shape of the letter L, with the lower limb 

 elongated. It is called the " Short Pickerel." 



The larger species (the Marsh Pickerel) grows to the 

 weight of twenty -five pounds ; it is even said that it has been, 

 taken as high as thirty-eight. It is common in the St. Law- 

 rence and Lake Ontario, and all of their connecting waters, 



