The Pike an Exterminator. 20Q 



capture pickerel and perch in numbers. Some fifty years 

 since the salmon and brook trout ruled supreme ; but the 

 mills and lumber dams have most effectually barred and for- 

 bidden their entrance, and about ten years since an American 

 introduced the pike (Esox reticulatus) into Lewey's, which 

 communicates directly with Long and Big Lakes. The result 

 is that it is fast exterminating all the other fishes, viz., trout, 

 chub, dace, redfin, eel, etc. The diminution in the numbers 

 of these fishes, and the rapid increase of their destroyer (I am 

 assured on good authority) have been remarkable. 



The distance from Princetown by canoe to the debouchure 

 of the Grand Lake Stream is about twelve miles. The latter 

 is about four miles in length, and connects the upper waters 

 of Grand, etc., with Big Lake by a series of rapids, in which 

 abundance of Silvery Salmon Trout reside. The pike 

 has apparently not yet settled in the Grand Lake, and I 

 hope may never obtain the mastery of its waters, were it 

 only for the sake of this splendid salmonoid. The waters of 

 the Grand Lake are clear compared with the others. This 

 arises from the circumstance that its bottom is covered with 

 granitic boulders and sand, instead of mud, which prevails in 

 the Big, Long, and Lewey's Lakes. Moreover, the former is 

 the abode of the Togue, which our Indian informed us is not 

 met with in the adjoining basins just mentioned. At the east 

 end of Big Lake are seen the huts of the Passamaquoddy 

 Indians, the remnants of a tribe that once lorded over the wild 

 wilderness around for ages. One of their number steered our 

 canoe, and proved, on short acquaintance, an able hunter ; 

 and, what is not common with his race, he was honest, truth- 

 ful, and willing. From him I obtained much valuable 

 information that no personal experience within my grasp 

 could obtain ; and, first, I made him find out if the Silvery 

 Salmon Trout was known to the old men of his tribe, when 

 it turned out that they had speared and taken it from time 



immemorial, even in the St. Croix, along with the salmon, from 



P 



