FISH AND FISHING. 



55 



good size here, but will not spawn. We 

 have never seen a small greyling in the lake. 



There are also ling in this lake, which 

 average about 10 inches in length. It is 

 easy to account for these. They doubtless 

 ran up some spring, when the water was 

 high, from Red Rock lake. The latter, 

 however, has none of these trout in it. 



Elk lake is 70 feet deep in places. Be- 

 tween here and Madison river there is a 

 chain of 4 lakes, Elk lake, Hidden lake, 

 Cliff lake, and Wade lake. They are all in 

 a canyon and it looks as if a river had run 

 through there at some ancient time. The 

 land no doubt slid in, in places, stopped the 

 flow and made the lakes. 



Elk lake is about 4 miles long and % of a 

 mile wide at the widest part. Hidden lake 

 is about 1^2 miles long by Y\ mile wide; 

 no inlet or outlet. Deepest place about 70 

 feet. No fish have ever been seen in it. 

 Cliff lake is about 3>4 miles by Yz mile wide. 

 In the middle is the top of a round moun- 

 tain, covered with timber, and sticking out 

 as if it had sunk there at some time. This 

 lake has 2 inlets, but no visible outlet. 

 Depth about 70 feet. 



There are thousands of fish in Cliff lake, 

 which look a good deal like our white fish. 

 Some of them grow to be 2 feet long. They 

 spawn in the fall and winter when one can 

 go along the shore, where there are some 

 small springs, and see thousands of them, 

 some with their fins out of the water. You 

 can shoot among them, with a rifle, and 

 kill from 5 to 40 at a shot. 



Wade lake, about 2^2 miles long by Y-i 

 mile wide, has a large spring inlet, no vis- 

 ible outlet. No fish known to be in it. All 

 these lakes have large springs breaking out 

 below them. 



I have never heard of the Mackinaw trout 

 being in Henry's lake. I think the way 

 Professor Evermann heard of them there, 

 was through Sawtell and Rash, of Henry's 

 lake, Avho sent some of the trout from Elk 

 lake, to Washington, to learn what kind 

 they were. 



There is another lake in Montana that I 

 know has the same trout in it. This lies 

 West of the Big Hole basin, high up in the 

 mountains. The outlet of it empties into 

 the Big Hole river. It is a deep lake too. 

 In the spring of 1888 E. W. Robbins and I 

 caught 2 trout there, with hook and line. 

 We were told some had been caught there 

 that weighed 25 pounds. If these are the 

 genuine Mackinaw trout, please say so in 

 Recreation: as nobody in this country 

 knows what kind of trout they are. 



James Blair. 



This letter of Mr. Blair's is deeply inter- 

 esting and the information given concern- 

 ing the lake trout is important. 



There are in the U. S. National Museum 

 3 specimens of the lake trout, which were 

 received fresh November 12, 1887, from 

 " Mr. Gilman Sawtell, Alderdice, Beaver- 

 head Co., Montana." It is said they were 

 obtained by him in Henry's lake. Each of 

 these specimens is about 14 inches long, to 

 the base of the caudal fin, and they seem to 

 agree closely with other specimens of the 

 same size from Lake Superior. They are 

 therefore the Great Lakes trout, or Mack- 

 inaw trout (Cristivomer namaycush). This 

 is the trout which is called " longe " in Ver- 

 mont, or " togue " in Maine. 



Its nearest relative in the West is the bull 

 trout, Dolly Varden trout, or Western charr 

 (Salvelinus malma). 



The Mackinaw trout, or any species of 

 the genus Cristivomer, can be readily told 

 from all other trout by the color as well as 

 by important structural characters. In all 

 species of Cristivomer the spots are always 

 gray instead of red, orange or black. 



The Mackinaw trout is widely distributed. 

 It occurs throughout the Great lakes region 

 and in the lakes of Northern New York, 

 Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, 

 Northward to Labrador and Boothia Felix 

 — 70 North. It is also known from Great 

 Bear lake, from Camin lake, 20 miles East 

 of New Westminster, British Columbia, and 

 Mr. Ashdown Green, of Victoria, has ob- 

 tained it on Vancouver Island, and perhaps 

 elsewhere in British Columbia. It was also 

 found by Dr. Eigenmann at various places 

 along the Canadian Pacific, viz: at Calgary, 

 Banff, Devil's lake, Golden, and Revelstoke. 

 These localities represent the basins of the 

 Saskatchewan and Columbia. 



Many years ago Dr. Coues found it in 

 Chief Mountain lake, on the boundary of 

 Montana and Alberta. This is also in the 

 Saskatchewan basin. In Alaska it has been 

 found as far North as the Kuwuk river, 

 within the Arctic Circle. 



The finding of this trout in Elk lake, in 

 the Missouri river basin, is interesting as it 

 does not seem to have been hitherto re- 

 ported from that basin. 



All who are interested in questions con- 

 nected with the geographic distribution of 

 our game fishes will feel thankful to Messrs. 

 Cummins and Blair for calling attention to 

 the presence of this species in Elk lake. 

 Cannot Mr. Blair tell us more about the 

 other lake in which he caught the Mack- 

 inaw trout — just where it is, its name, how 

 to reach it, etc.? 



And now about the trout which Mr. Saw- 

 tell sent to the National Museum in 1887: 

 It is very important to know, definitely, 

 whether they came from Henry's lake or 

 Elk lake. The letter accompanying them 

 evidently said " Henry's lake." Can Mr. 

 Blair unravel the matter? 



Barton W. Evermann, 

 Ichthyologist U. S. Fish Comm. 



