March 18, 1886. j 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



149 



salmon which pass the McCloud hatching station in the 

 summer, on their way up the river to spawn, die in the 

 river and never return to the ocean." 



The chapter on the brook trout of the East is a reprint of 

 Mr. Goode's essay on this subject in Scribner's "Game Fishes 

 of the United States," and contains no new matter. We had 

 hoped to see something said upon the so-called "sea trout" of 

 New Brunswick. 



Following the fishes come the mollusks, the crustaceans 

 and the sponges. Taking the work as a whole, we regard it 

 as one of the most valuable popular publications that has 

 been issued under the auspices of the tJ. S. Commission of 

 Fish and Fisheries, which has published so many valuable 

 works For some reason the number of copies issued to mem- 

 bers of Congress has been limited to one, and many persons 

 have been disappointed in being unable to procure them. 

 They can, however, be obtained from the public printer at a 

 moderate cost, and the work should find a place in the library 

 of every angler and naturalist. 



>. 



THE NEW TROUT OF SUNAPEE LAKE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have read with great interest the articles you have pub- 

 lished on the new trout of Snuapee Lake, and hold myself 

 some original correspondence in regard to their size and 

 origin. Allow me briefly to express my opinion. 



In 1874 I carried my boat seventeen miles over the moun- 

 tains, and launched her on Sunapee. It was a case of love 

 at first sight. I began my addresses in an humble way as a 

 tent-dweller by its "crystal waters ; to-day I own three cot- 

 tages embosomed in its pines, and If miles of its shore. 

 During the last twelve years I have industriously prosecuted 

 the gentle art, and frankly admit that I have never hooked 

 or even seen one of these , Oqtiassa trout; moreover, among 

 the host of anglers and frequenters of ttie lake with whom 

 I am acquainted I know not, one who has. The trout were 

 seen for the first time last October, spawning on my sand 

 shoals, by Colonel E. B. Hodge, our Fish Commissioner, 

 and Mr. A. H. Powers, ex Commissioner. The problem 

 is easily solved; and my esteemed friend. Colonel Hodge, 

 I fear may not figure as the discoverer of a new species 

 indigenous to the lake— an inhabitant of Suuapee's depths 

 from time immemorial, yet never before noticed by any 

 of the thousands of poachers and anglers who have cast 

 flies, fished with worms and salt pork, or swept seines 

 in the lake for a century! Impossible. The new trout, 

 are the giant offspring of Rangeley "blue-backs," introduced 

 a few years since as food for the large brook trout, and fur-1 

 nished in Sunapee with phenomenal conditions, not only for 

 sustenance, but also for enormous growth. All fish except 

 pickerel attain an unusual size in the waters of this lake — 

 yellow perch, two pounds and upward; land-locked salmon, 

 twelve pounds (seven years from the ovum); brook trout, six 

 to nine pounds, and black bass the unprecedented weight of 

 seven and a half pounds (two pounds beyond the limit of the 

 naturalist). 



So the little "blue-backs" of liaugeley have found here 

 the food and water to make them grow as large as their con- 

 geners of Disco Island and Labrador, and even to exceed in 

 weight those famous native dark-skinned, brilliant-spotted 

 trout, in pursuit of which the aborigines made frequent 

 journeys to "Sunapee's shore of rock," and barrels upon bar- 

 rels of whose juicy pink flesh have been salted down by the 

 white settlers and their descendants since the time the coun- 

 try was opened. John D. Quackenbos. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The letters of Prof. Baird and Dr. Bean, in the last For- 

 est and Strkam, seem conclusive as to the point of the new 

 trout discovered by Messrs. Hodge and Powers, in Sunapee 

 Lake, being of the oquassa type, and I take it were written 

 before the publication of Mr. Powers's letter, which I sent 

 you, giving the date when the genuine Salvelinus oquassa 

 were planted there. 



There is another question which I have had in my mind 

 for a year or two, and that is, as to the exact classification of 

 the celebrated Dimond Pond trout. 



Had I been able to have visited those ponds this summer, 

 it was my intention to have forwarded some of them to Dr. 

 Goode for examination, but I failed to get there. 



Mr. Prime gives a very graphic account of fly-fishing in 

 the upper pond, in "I Go a-Fishing," but I have never been 

 able to take a single fish in that pond in several visits, 

 although I have always. taken them, both with fly and bait, 

 in the lower pond. 



When there two years since I whipped the upper pond 

 faithfully one evening and the next morning, in company 

 with an expert fly-fisherman, who had been very successful 

 a fortnight previous, without either of us getting a rise; but 

 1 saw the outline, on a piece of birch bark, of a 2^-pounder 

 which he took on the former occasion, nailed up against the 

 door post of Mart Noyes's camp. 



Now, 1 have never seen a trout over one-half pound in 

 weight taken from the lower pond. The fish there are very 

 uniform in size, from 9 to 12 inches long, round, slender, 

 and with no mottling of the fins and very little of the back 

 (which is dark and bluish), with the red spots very small and 

 the flesh a very deep red, looking when raw like a beef- 

 steak. 



These ponds are on the Androscoggin water shed, which 

 they drain into through Dimond Stream; and the trout of 

 the Upper Mohawk, six miles to the westward on the Con- 

 necticut water shed, are white-fleshed, deeper bellied and more 

 distinctly mottled. 



The tail of the Dimond Pond trout, too, is inclined to be 

 bifurcated, and, in fact, the first time I ever caught one, I 

 was inclined to doubt its being a trout until 1 found the red 

 spots. I believe that they also belong to the oquassa variety, 

 and should I get up there again shall try and send some to 

 Washington for identification. Samuel Webber, 



Charlestown, N. H. ■ — — — 



The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, of Pitts- 

 burgh, at their last meeting, decided to erect on their 

 property in Cambria county, a large club house or hotel to 

 be used for the exclusive benefit of members of the club, and 

 a limited number of then friends. Plans of the proposed 

 structure have already been prepared, It will be of unique 

 design, three stories high, and will be large enough to ac- 

 commodate 150 guests. It will be located on Conemaugh 

 Lake, a body of water two miles long and three-quarters of 

 a mile wide, situated two miles back of South Fork, on the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad, and about nine miles southeast of 

 Johnstown. The club, which has a membership of about 

 jiixty substantial citizens, now owns between l.fOO and 1.800 

 #$"fls of land in Cambria county. ' ' ' : 



MASKINONJE, MASCALLUNGE, MASKl- 

 NAUGA. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I find that I have got into a very serious scrape by writing 

 about the etymology of maskinonje. In a reminiscence in 

 Forest and Stream, of Dec. 31, I made a foot note, in 

 which I called the attention of etymologists to the derivation 

 of the word "mascalonge" and its variations, and drew upon 

 my very limited stock of the Ojibwa tongue, obtained thirty 

 years ago and nearly forgotten. In this I said . 



"My spelling of the Ojibwa name of pike, Kenosha, is en- 

 tirely phonetic. I have no idea how it might be spelled. 

 Give the o a nasal sound and twist it into 'Kinoje' and it is 

 not a far cry to 'maskinonje,' which most authorities try to 

 twist into a French derivation with 'mask' as a synouym 

 of 'face.' I do not pretend to decide this matter, for I am 

 not learned enough in either French or Ojibwa, and know 

 that the latter tongue has received many additions since the 

 'Chemokman' came among them. As an instance of this: 

 A poor Indian had beeged around camp for some days with 

 more or less success, when one morning he came in and re- 

 quested 'pungee pegushigun.' To my untrained ear this 

 meant 'pungee' (little) 'pequishigan' (bread), and I told 

 him 'gowin pequishigan' (no bread); he insisted, and taking 

 up a "gun showed me that 'pegushigun' meant percussion 

 caps for a gun and not bread — showing that he had made a 

 word, or others had, for something new." 



This was followed by one of your correspondents, who 

 opened up n new field to me, and created a desire to go into 

 the matter further. This correspondent, in your issue of 

 Jan. 7, said: 



"In the foot note to the article entitled 'A New Year Fish- 

 ing Trip,' Mr. Mather ventured an etymology of the word 

 'mascalonge.' He might, safely have gone further. It is 

 .hardly necessary to remind so accomplished an Ojibwa 

 scholar that mas means 'spotted' or 'speckled.' Thus: the 

 Nipigon Indians (Chippewas) call the lake trout (Salvelinus 

 namui/eush) 'namaycush ;' the brook trout 'mas-namaycush,' 

 and they assured me that mas had the meauing above given. 

 If the distinct spots of the mascalonge be compared with the 

 broken-line markings of the northern pike, the reason 

 of applying the adjective will be evident. 'Maskinonge' is 

 said by the 'Encyclopaedic Dictionary' to be the Algonquin 

 name, and in 'Hiawatha' 'kenozha' and 'maskinozha 5 are 

 used as synonymous. I can have little doubt that 'mas-ki- 

 nonge' means simply 'spotted pike.' But like Mr. Mather I 

 have learned the difficulty of expressing Indian sounds in 

 our usual notation. — X." 



An editorial note said: "This opens a new mine for ety- 

 mologists who have always looked to the French and have 

 concluded that the name was derived from 'mask allonge' or 

 long face. It seems more probable that the French twisted 

 the'Ojibwa name into their vernacular and made 'maskinoje' 

 into mascallonge, maskanonge, etc. We will be pleased to 

 hear further from our Ojibwa scholars." 



"X." gave me credit for a great deal more knowledge than 

 I possess, for it never occurred to me that "mas" meant 

 "spotted or speckled." As he truly says, "it is exceedingly 

 difficult to express Indian sounds in our usual notation," 

 Ishould have said for red or spotted (?) "mis," thus: "Mis- 

 quah" is red, as I understand their Ojibwa; and "mis-qua-bo," 

 red blood or fluid; "mis qua-walk," red cedar, etc. 



It occurred to me then to work this matter up and see 

 what I could make of this variously spelled name of maskin- 

 onje or mascalonge and wrote to my old friend, D. H. Fitz- 

 hugh, Jr., of Bay City, and asked him to inquire of our 

 guide, the famous Len. jewel, how nearly correct this might- 

 be, as Len spoke the language quite fluently, and when in 

 the woods with him I have attempted to brush up what little 

 knowledge I had obtained of the Indian, by conversation. 

 This and the attempt at a little "patter" in Ojibwa with 

 Jack Shephard, the noted Brown tract guide of the Adiron- 

 dacks, is all the chance I have had to air the few words in 

 my Ojibwa vocabulary in thirty years. The result was that 

 I had to depend very largely upon my knowledge of English 

 in order to get along at all. Mr. Fitzhugh kindly replied 

 to my letter, but before its receipt 1 read the obituary notice 

 of Len Jewel in your issue of Jan. 28. 

 Mr. Fitzhugh said: 



Bay City, Jan. 11, 1886. My Dear Sir— Your favor re- 

 ceived: "In re maskinonge" — Some thirty years ago the 

 question was agitated in Porter's Spirit, and the saine dis 

 cussion took place. Genio C. Scott was in correspondence 

 with Mr. W. A. Fitzhugh, a cousin of mine, whose gun 

 and tackle fell to my lot at his demise. They agreed that 

 the proper name was maskinonge, sharp accent on the "e," 

 and Genio quoted him as authority for the correct name. 

 Now as to whether the "mas" means "spotted" or not, I 

 can't inform you — I always thought it meant a pike of larger 

 growth, and when 1 have asked the Indians they always said 

 "Yes," but you know how hard it is to get a correct interpre- 

 tation from an Indian, as they will always pleasantly agree 

 to any suggestion. It is astonishing how far a little Indian 

 lore, a little money and a little whisky will go to make these 

 noble natives agree to all you may say or do. Len don't know, 

 but thinks it means a large pike. The fearful march of 

 civilization (much to be regretted) has swept away the 

 Indians in this vicinity, also the intelligent traders who 

 might give me some information. When I go to Nepigon 

 next summer, where the purest 'Castilian' is said to exist 

 among the Chippewa tribe, I will try to find out from the 

 Menominees, who are good friends of mine, and report to 

 you. The Chippewa language here is corrupted by mixing 

 with the Ottawas on the east of Canada. In the Northwest, 

 where you picked up your jargon, it was mixed with Meno- 

 minee, but we had no trouble at Nepigon with Len to inter- 

 pret. Although but very few of our guides could under- 

 stand English, more could speak French. I send you by 

 mail an Indian primer, which may guide you in your re- 

 searches. 'A little book for you to look upon.' Send it 

 back to me, as I value it and cannot replace it. The nota 

 tions in pencil were made by my cousin, W. A. Fitzhugh, 

 who was an enthusiast on the Ojibwa language. You may 

 find it interesting. Old Len is sick in the city hospital with 

 gravel and inflammation of the bladder. I made him go 

 there for good treatment, and we visit him daily ; but I fear 

 he will not be able to go with us into the wilds much more, 

 although he went with us to Nepigon last year after a similar 

 attack, and did good light service. Truly your friend, D. 

 H. Fitzhugh." 



It will be seen from this letter how difficult it is for a man 

 who has picked up a little lingo in one portion of a tribe 

 which has not preserved its language in its purity to con- 

 ■ verse or eve'n to understand what is spoken by members of 

 the tribe residing at a distance. The admixture of French 

 I pud English words has tended to confuse, the tongues of the 



different branches of the same tribe. Thus, while I spelled 

 the word for large "kigee," I find that Longfellow, in "Hia- 

 watha," spells it "gitchee," and in the Ojibwa primer, com- 

 piled by Rev. Peter Dougherty. 1844, kindly sent me by Mr. 

 Fitzhugh, he spells it "geche." 



As near as I understand the Ojibwa or Chippewa as it has 

 been Anglicized, they have one general name for fish, 

 "kego." While I undeistand the pike to be "kenosha" or 

 "kinoje" (Dougherty spells it "kenozha") the trout to be 

 "noo-may-gus" (which has been twisted by ichthyologists 

 into namaymsU); the black bass to be "oo-she-gun, ""which I 

 see Prof. Goode makes "achigan" in his "Game Fishes of the 

 United States." 



In the following I have given all the various spelliugs that 

 I have been able to find in American works on fishes, and 

 whenever an author has attempted to give a definition of the 

 name of the fish, or to trace its derivation, I give his lan- 

 guage in full. Much of the spelling is evidently corrupted, 

 and some instances are no doubt printers' errors. I have also 

 given the number of syllables that should be sounded in the 

 different names, and will say that in every case the g should 

 be soft. 



In Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio, Vol. IV., 

 Part I., Zoology, Columbus, 1882, p. 917, Jordan gives: 

 "Esox nobiUor, Thompson Muskallooge; Mascalonge, Mas- 

 kinonge, Great Pike. 'Esox masquinongy, Mitchell' (quoted, 

 'Mirror, 1824, 297,' but it is not there; 1 cannot find the de- 

 scription anywhere)," 



Hallock, "Sportsman's Gazetteer," 1878, gives "niuskel- 

 lunge, mascalonge, and maskinonge," and says: "This fish 

 is known in the laws of Canada as the 'maskinonge,' from 

 the Chippewa word maskanonje, meaning long nose; but in 

 the States it is called 'mascalonge,' from the French masque 

 and allonge (elongated) longface!" 



I give below, in alphabetical order, such various spelliugs 

 as I find, and where an author has attempted to trace the 

 derivation, 1 quote his words; 



Roosevelt, "Game Fish of the North," Chap. XIV., 

 "mascallonge. synonyms: Esoxeslor, masqueallonge, mus- 

 kellunge, muscalinga, masquinongy, maskinonge, rnusca- 

 nonga." * * * '"The name of this fish is derived from 

 masque allonge, long snout, which is a translation from the 

 Canadian Indian dialect of mascanonga, words which have 

 the same signification ; and from corruptions of these two 

 designations arise nur numerous names. I took great pains 

 to ascertain precisely how the Canadian boatmen, who are a 

 cross of the Indian "and Frenchman, pronounced this name, 

 although, in their French patois, he is ordinarily called Bro- 

 chat, and the best my ears could make of it was mas or mus- 

 callung, the latter syllable being gutteral.* Rut as the most 

 sonorous, expressive, and appropriate nam 3 is mascallonge, 

 it is desirable that all sportsmen should employ it." 



mascalonge (three syllables). 



"Frank Forester" (Henry William Herbert), "Fish and 

 Fishing," no date, pp. 151.281. Asa synonym he gives, 

 "Masqucallonge, Canadian French." Perhaps thee is a typo- 

 graphical error. Page 152, he says: "The mascalonge owes 

 its name to the formation of the head— masque allonge, long 

 face or snout, Canadian French — but which has been trans- 

 lated from dialect to dialect, maskinonge, muscalunge, and 

 muscalinga, until every trace of true derivation is lost." 



Norris, Thaddeus, "The American Angler's Book," 1865, 

 p. 135. 



Sterling, Dr. E., paper read before the Mass. Angler's 

 Ass., no date. 



Jordan. D. 8., "Geological Survey of Ohio," 1882, Vol. 

 IV., p. 917. 



"Kingfisher," Forest and Stream, Vol. XVI., p. 72, de- 

 scribes one of 32 pounds. 



"Dr. K ," Forest and Stream, Vol. XX., p. 308, "Does 

 it leap?" 



"B.," ibid, p. 348. 



"Canuck," in Forest and Stream, Vol. XXII., p. 107. 

 Catches a big one. 



MASKAiiONGE (three syllables). 



Dr. C. A. Hewers, Forest and Stream, Vol. XIX., p. 30, 

 tells of one caught of 33 pounds, with a live gull for bait. 



Elihu Phinney, Forest and Stream, Vol. XX, p. 231, 

 does it leap? 



maskeenonjai (four syllables). 

 Writer in New York Commercial Advertiser, Dec. 10, 1824, 

 quoted by Thomas F. Devoe, "The Market Assistant." 

 Orange Judd & Co., no date. 



maskellonge (three syllables). 

 G. M. Skinner, Forest and Stream, Vol. XVII. , p. 212, 

 tells of one of 10 and one of 18 pounds. 



MASKINAVGA. 



I have somewhere seen this spelling but cannot find it now, 

 this is doubtless a printer's error for maskinonge. 



maskinonge (four syllables). 



Jordan, D 8., Report Ohio Fish Commission, 1S77, p. 92. 



"Antoine," Forest and Stream, Vol. XIX., p. 70, one 

 bites a man's foot. 



Scott, Genio C, "Fishing in American Waters," 1875, p. 

 277. "The Ojibwa name of this fish is 'maska?ionja,' mean- 

 ing 'long snout.' When Canada was a French colony the 

 habitans named it masque-longue, signifying long visage. 1 

 submit that the Ojibwa was entitled by priority to the right 

 of naming the fish; but as the Dominion of Canada has 

 named it again, and in all legal enactments there in reference 

 to it the name of the fish is written 'maskinonge,' I willingly 

 accept the modification instead of either the Indian or the 

 French name." 



Jordan, D. S., Geological Survey of Ohio, 1882, Vol. IV., 

 p. 917. 



Scott, J., Forest and Stream, Vol. III., p. 395. 



Roof, Clarence M., Forest and Stream, Vol. III., p. 322. 



maskinonje (four syllables). 

 Forest and Stream, Vol. XIX., p. 369, describes one of 

 34 pounds. 



masqualongus (four syllables). 

 Jordan and Gilbert, Report Ohio Fish Commission. 1875- 

 76, p. 82. 



muscalonge (three syllables). 

 Forest and Stream, Vol. XL, p. 324: "A Monster 

 Muscalonge.— Belle vue, Ont,, Nov. 12 [1878]. — This morn- 

 ing (Tuesday, Nov. 11) the largest muscalonge ever captured 

 in the Bay of Quinte, and probably one of the largest ever 

 caught in fresh water, was taken in a seine near Belleville. 

 I personally measured the fish and found its dimensions to 

 be as follows; Length, from tip of nose to end of tail, 5 feet 



*Here ia the ooly ipstaiioe of. a terd Q which T have met i<i icuikim 

 up this subject., - ■' • .? 



