190S.] FISHES. 505 



ATomen and children when the boats are tied up to the bank. Being- 

 slender and bony, it is but an indifferent food fish. It is usually 

 called ' roach ' by the English-speaking inhabitants. 



Hiodon alosoides (Kafinesque). Goldeye. 



The goldeye is a rather common inhabitant of Athabaska River, 

 Athabaska Lake, and Slave Eiver, becoming scarcer northward, and 

 being practically unknown north of Great Slave Lake. It is less 

 esteemed than the whitefish, with which it is taken. 



The most northern record of this species is of an example which 

 I obtained from a native at Fort Xorman on June 12, 1904. He had 

 just taken it in his herring net, set at the mouth of Bear River. It 

 was considered a great rarity — in fact, the man had never before 

 taken one like it. Unfortunately, this specimen was among the 

 number lost after reaching Washington. 



Coregonus spp. Whitefish. 



Owing to the loss of most of my specimens of this genus on which 

 I depended for identification, I find it impossible to correlate most 

 of my notes with definite specific names. The following species are 

 known to occur in the Mackenzie Valley : C . quadmlateralis^ described 

 by Richardson, from Fort Enterprise, is a fish of very wide dis- 

 tribution: C. richardsoni Gunther was described from Arctic North 

 America, probably from Richardson's collection. It is not well 

 known, and may be the same as C , hennicotti^ the type locality of 

 which is Fort Good Hope. 



Whitefish of one or more species are found in nearly every lake 

 and stream throughout the North. Some of the species are anadro- 

 mous. The average weight of those taken is from 2 to 4 pounds, but 

 in some lakes they attain a weight of 8, 12, or even 20 pounds. As 

 a food fish probably none surpass it. In regard to this I may quote 

 Richardson's encomium, as his opportunity for forming an opinion 

 was of the best. He says: 



Several species of this subgenus [C()rcgonus'] have been celebrated for the 

 delicacy of their flavour, but none have been more justly so than the Attihaw- 

 mcg, which is an inhabitant of all the interior lakes of America, from Erie to 

 the Arctic Sea. Several Indian hordes mainly subsist upon it, and it forms 

 the principal food at many of the fur posts for eight or nine months of the 

 year, the supply of other articles of diet being scanty and casual. Though 

 it is a rich, fat fish, instead of producing satiety it becomes daily more agree- 

 able to the palate ; and I know from experience, that though deprived of bread 

 and vegetables, one may live wholly upon this fish for months, or even years, 

 without tiring." 



So important are whitefish as an article of diet that the sites of 

 many, perhaps the majority, of the trading posts, as well as the win- 

 tering stations of a number of exploring expeditions, places which 



« Fauna Boreali-Americana, III, p. 195, 183G. 



