62 
THROUGH WONDERLAND . 
“ Here and there along the almost perpendicular cliffs the outflow of the 
melting snow in the pockets of the mountains leaps down in dizzy waterfalls 
from heights that are higher than the Yosemite. From the canons which divide 
the foot-hills, cascades pour out into the brine, and all their channels are 
choked with salmon crowding toward the upper waters. I could catch them 
with my hands as long as my strength endured, so helpless and infatuated are 
these creatures of predestination. At the heads of many of these rivulets there 
are lakes in which dwell salmon trout, spotted with crimson spots as large as a 
pea ; and the rainbow trout, with his iridescent lateral stripe ; and his cousin ger- 
main, the ‘ cut-throat trout,’ slashed with carmine under the gills. And there 
is another trout, most familiar to the eye in Eastern waters, and doubly welcome 
to the sight in this far-off region—the Salvelinus Canadensis , or ‘sea-trout,’ 
which I have recognized these many years as a separate species. * * ■* 
Here he is in his garniture of crimson, blue and gold, just like his up-stream 
neighbors of New England and the Provinces. * * 
“ The seas are full of strange species. Here the family Eercidce is regnant 
and supreme among the food fishes. The number of species and varieties is 
remarkable. Here are the Embiotocidce, or viviparous perch, which bring forth 
their young in litters, like cats or dogs, to the number of eight to forty at a 
time. There are no less than seventeen known varieties of them. Here, also, 
are at least fifteen varieties of Scorpoenidce , all fine table fish, which are locally 
known as rock-cod, groupers and snappers, but having no close relations at all 
to the family of Gadidoe . I send' herewith the differential characteristics of 
four of them taken near our present berth, in latitude 51 degrees 30 minutes. 
The scarlet snapper seems very closely allied to the Lutjamis Blackfordi of 
Eastern Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, from which he could scarcely be dis¬ 
tinguished in appearance. The others are all fish of brilliant colors. No. 2 
can scarcely be distinguished from the fresh-water bass of the lakes lying west 
of the Mississippi,—the Micropterus ,—-either in form, fin system or color. At 
Sitka I found a fish of exactly the same shape, but black as a sea-bass of the 
Atlantic ( Centropristis atrarius ). No. 4 belongs, I believe, to the family of 
Chiridcr , and is locally known as a sea-trout. * * * These fish 
take salmon roe, clams, sand-worms, crabs, meat and cut-fish bait. The black 
bass of Sitka is taken alongshore with a trolling spoon. * * * The 
other fish were taken chiefly in thirty fathoms of water on the young flood tide. 
“ Besides these fish, we have taken halibut, two kinds of flounder, skates, dog¬ 
fish of several kinds and strange shapes, sharks, sculpins, etc.; some of the 
sculpins were beautifully marked in blue, red and brown. * * I have 
had. several of the species painted in oil, and will forward them to the Smith¬ 
sonian, with descriptions.” 
But let us leave this piscatorial paradise, as painted by one who is an artist 
in his line, and wend our way through the forty miles of Fitzhugh Sound. Then 
comes Lama Passage, contracted, winding and picturesque, about fourteen or 
fifteen miles long. About half way through we pass very near the Indian 
