464 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
Hamlin writes: “This Trout inhabits many of the great lakes and 
deep mountain torrents of Maine and New Brunswick, but it is believed 
not to exist in those of Eastern New Brunswick, which singular hiatus in 
its distribution, perhaps, may be explained by the absence of deep waters 
in that country. It haunts the deepest waters, where the cold, or the re¬ 
pose to which it leads, favors that development and conservation of fat 
which is indeed a characteristic, and it steals forth in quiet at the approach 
of twilight or at early morn to the shoals and the shores in quest of its 
prey.” 
The Winnipiseogee Trout, somewhat abundant in Lake Winnipiseogee 
and supposed to occur in Lake George, is also a form of this species, 
closely related to the Togue. 
The popular and scientific names which have been given to this species 
are due to the wonderful tendency of variation in size, shape, and colora¬ 
tion which this species, like the Brook Trout, exhibits. Every lake in 
which they occur has its own varieties, which local authorities believe to 
be quite peculiar. Some are black, some brown, with crimson spots, some 
gray, with delicate reticulations like those of a pickerel. The usual type 
to be found in the Great Lakes is brown or gray dappled with lighter 
shades of the same general tint. Throughout Lakes Superior, Michigan, 
and Huron, the fishermen are generally of the opinion that there are at 
least two kinds of Lake Trout. It seems probable, however, that these 
observers have been misled by superficial characters. 
The best study of the habits of the Namaycush, as an inhabitant of the 
Great Lakes, was that made by Milner, in 1871. He observed that m 
Lake Michigan, except in the spawning season, they remain in the deep¬ 
est parts of the lake. In their autumnal migrations they do not ascend the 
rivers, and although they are known to exist in a few small inland lakes, 
connected with the main lakes by rapids, there is no knowledge that they 
have ever been seen or taken in the outlets. In the northern parts of 
Lake Michigan they are caught in depths of fifteen fathoms in small num¬ 
bers by the gill-nets, and more plentifully through the ice in winter, 
chiefly at a depth of more than thirty fathoms. 
They are ravenous feeders. In Lake Michigan, where a careful inves¬ 
tigation into the nature of their food was made, it was found that they 
were preying upon the cisco, Coregonus Hoyt , a well-known fish closely 
resembling the white-fish. Mr. Milner was inclined to combat the 
generally accepted theory of the fishermen that they are large consumers. 
