Skip to main content

Full text of "Special appended reports [microform]"

See other formats 


CIHM 
Microfiche 
Series 
(IMonograplis) 


iCIMH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographies) 


Canadian  Instituta  for  Historical  Microroproductions  /  institut  Canadian  da  microroproductiont  historiquas 


D 


D 


10x 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  techniques  et  bibllographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  blbHographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


a 


Coloured  covers  / 
Couverture  de  couleur 


□  Covers  damaged  / 
Couverture  endommagte 

I   Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
— I  Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  pellicul^e 

Cover  title  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  g^ographiques  en  couleur 


j   Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)  / 
I   Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 


Encre  de  couleur  (I.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


U 
J 


J 


3 


Bound  with  other  material  / 
Reli^  avec  d'autres  documents 

Only  edition  available  / 
Seule  Edition  disponible 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion  along 
interior  margin  /  La  reliure  serr^e  peut  causer  de 
I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorsion  le  long  de  la  marge 
int^rieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restorations  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have  been 
omitted  from  filming  /  II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages 
blanches  ajout^es  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  lorsque  cela  ^tait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  616  film^es. 

Additional  comments  / 
Commentaires  suppl^mentaires: 


L'lnstitut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
6\6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire qui  son!  peut'dtre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibll- 
ographique.  qui  peuvent  nrxxlifier  une  image  reproduHe. 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifk»tion  dans  la  mitho- 
de  nonnale  de  filmage  sont  indk]u6s  ci-dessous. 

I     I  Coloured  pages  /  Pages  de  couleur 

I I  Pages  damaged  /  Pages  endommag6es 


D 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Pages  restaurtes  et/ou  pellicul^es 


r~~k  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
L^  Pages  dteolor^es.  tachetdes  ou  piqudes 

I     I  Pages  detached  /  Pages  d^tach^es 

l/l  Showthrough/ Transparence 

I     I  Quality  of  print  varies  / 


D 
D 


a 


Ouaiitd  indgale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material  / 
Comprend  du  materiel  suppl^mentaire 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata  slips, 
tissues,  etc..  have  been  refilmed  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  totalement  ou 
partiellement  obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une 
pelure,  etc..  ont  6\6  filmdes  k  nouveau  de  fa^on  k 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 

Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
discolourations  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant  ayant  des 
colorations  variables  ou  des  decolorations  sont 
filmdes  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la  meilleure  image 
possible. 


h\s  item  it  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checlced  below  / 

e  document  cat  U\mi  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqui  ci-dct*out. 


Ox 


14x 


18x 


12x 


16x 


20x 


22x 


T 


26x 


30x 


24x 


28x 


32x 


iM  copy  «lm«d  hf  tMt  b«««  raproduMd  thanks 
0  th«  0«n«re«itv  of: 

National  Ubrary  of  Canada 


L'axMnplaira  fUm*  fut  raproduit  grica  A  la 
O*n«rosit*  da: 

Bibllothiqua  nationala  du  Canada 


rha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  quality 
loaaibia  censMaring  tha  condition  and  lagibility 
>f  tha  originai  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
liming  aantraet  apacificationa. 


Original  capias  in  printod  papar  covara  ara  fllmad 
••ginning  with  tho  front  covor  and  onding  on 
hm  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  impraa> 
lion,  or  tha  bach  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
ithar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  bagmning  on  tha 
lr»t  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  ••"P'f*- 
tion.  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  writh  a  printad 
>r  illuatratad  impraaaion. 


rha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  •"'«'°*''jj! 
ihall  contain  tha  lymbol  — » '"»••"'"> ''S°.; 
HNUEO"!.  or  tha  symbol  ▼  Cmaaning    6ND  I. 
whichavar  appliaa. 

Maps,  platas.  charts,  ate.  may  ba  fllmad  at 
riiffarant  raduction  ratios.  Thosa  too  l«'8«  «  »• 
intiraly  includad  in  ona  axpoaura  ara  fllmad 
iMginning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornor.  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bonom.  as  many  framas  as 
raguirad.  Tha  following  diagrams  illustrata  tha 
mathod: 


Las  imagas  suivantaa  ont  *t*  rapreduitas  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin.  eompto  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nanatO  da  Taaamplaira  filmi,  at  an 
eonf  ermit*  avac  laa  eonditiona  du  eontrat  da 
fUmaga. 

Laa  oaamplalraa  originaux  dont  la  eouvartura  an 
papiar  aat  Imprintaa  sont  filmas  an  eemmancant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
darnlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaalon  ou  d'illuatration.  soit  par  la  sacond 
plat,  salon  la  eaa.  Toua  laa  autras  aaamplairas 
originaua  sont  filmda  an  commancant  par  la 
pramiara  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'illuatration  at  wt  tarminant  par 
la  dami*ra  paga  qui  comporta  una  taila 
amprainta. 

Un  daa  symbolaa  auivants  apparaltra  sur  la 
damiAra  imaga  da  chaqua  microfiche,  talon  la 
cas:  la  symbda  -^^  signifia  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
symbola  ▼  signifia  "UN". 

Las  cartaa.  planchas.  tablaaux.  ate.  pauvant  itra 
filmto  *  daa  taux  da  rMuctien  diffirants. 
Lorsqua  la  document  aat  trap  grand  pour  *tra 
raproduit  an  un  saul  clicha.  il  ast  film*  a  partir 
da  I'angia  supOriaur  gaucha.  da  gaucha  a  droito. 
at  da  haut  an  baa.  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'imagaa  nOcassaira.  Laa  diagrammas  suivants 
illustrant  la  mOthoda. 


1 

2 

3 

1 


6 


MKiocorr  motunoN  tbt  cmait 

(ANSI  ond  ISO  TfST  CHAUT  No.  2) 


A 


/APPLIED  IIVMGE    I 

1653   Eoit   Uorn    StrMt 
HochMUr,    Naw    'ork         1*609       USA 
(7t6)  ♦a?  -  0300  -  PhonT^       ^ 
(716)  2U-  5989  -  Fgi 


^-  T 


-  *  ^''J^jl^"^.,**-'     '■«%    fell 


^'-.-J 


1' 


PPENDEP  EEPOBTS. 


A* 


Bf 


PROFESSOR  E.  E.  PRINCE 


-m: 


-f.-^  .' 


*i^ 


X  KtA^nifO  TbiJNO  IV7:    Its  OOMPARATIVS  ADtrANTAaiS. 
,«^> \  AQQUMATIZAnON  OF  nOB,  n»H-WATKB  AKD 1UBIN1.   "  * 


I  9il 


fc/J.' 


1900 


*«^>.-'<''^ 


Si 


V; 


«*,;    ^fr*' ;  ■ 


aoVlANMKH'^  PBIlTTINa  BUBIAU 


»-v 


'iit  5>"'>„t'i-_j 


■i:     ;•*,-: 


SPECIAL 


APPENDED  KEPOKTS 


IT 


PROl  ESSOR  E.  E.  PRINCE 

DomxHion  Commi»ium»r  of  FUheries 


1.  PLANTINIJ  YOUN(}  FRY :    ITS  COMPARATIVE  ADVANTAGES. 

2.  THE  VERNACULAR  NAMES  OF  FISHES. 

3.  ACCLIMATIZATION  OF  FISH,  FRESH  WATER  AND  MARINE. 


1900 


OTTAWA 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    BUREAU 

1901 


.i^^-*^ 


fi0d24727 


SPECIAL  REPORTS 


CONTENTS 


I.— FUatlBf  TooBff  Frjr. 

TAOM. 

Agr  wh«n  fry  arc  (lUnlMl  in  f 'mumU 9 

AivuiiH-iiU  KfTitiiwt  iilkiitiiig  yiHinn  fry 9 

M  infaviMirof  m  10,11 

Baa*,  aiir  »(  ymiiiv  lilark 9 

Brailc  tniut  iiiitr  »f  yiiuiiK. 9 

Ifciww,  Mr,  HeyiiHMir,  qiM»t«l 11 

Bucklanil.  Kntiik,  (|iH>tMl M,  U 

CannilMraiii  »iiiiiiik  fry 9 

Coat  (i(  itUntiiiK  niimll  (rv 11 

IMMU'vltwtiM'Ha  of  fry,  a^lt-gt^i 9 

Kcxal,  inflwiiu-  on  Krimtli 9 

Kiaal,  (liMcult  til  >ii|i|ily  pnnivr 10 

l-'rancia,  Utf  Francia,  qiiiit*^ 10 

tjBkx-tnnit,  »!«••  iif  youiiK 9 

Ij»*«  Urvnl  «t»((«-«iif  (ry 8 

LiitMtora,  an-  I'ltiiiiilula  k  lien  vihiiik 9 

Lulaitrr  rmiiniiaaiiiii  (IHIIH)  rfiriTHl  ti>. 9 

MaitUiiil,  Mir.l.  *i.  i|uiitMl  10 

Marino  fry  vor^  driiciitr 9 

Mtkrinv  BioUitpcHl  Sta.  of  Canaila 8 

^Iichi^Bn  rxiarinw'nta  rf  fry 10 

<  llijwtiona  t<i  fry  |iUiitinir    9 

.r  aiiHWcrwi 10 

I'acifif  aalnion  fry,  nixc  of 8 

K<>|>lii-a  t4i  oliJivti<nii>  rt  fry  pUutinii 0,  10 

Salmon  fry,  varying  »i«r  of 8 

•Sliwl,  atatff  when  fmalyolk  t-xhaiiatod 7 

Siimiw  of  planting  yoiniK  fry  11 

Ti-rtli,  »|>i»'«raii'*  of  ill  vi)iin(f"li«<l..   7 

TfiniieratiirH  of  water  wmri' tiy  |il«ntf<l 9 

Variation  in  (fro»th  of  fry 8,  H,  10 

WiM  fr>',  wrumi*  ItMHott  aiiiontp*t 9 

Warliiitf  HtAK^  (IfHiiiil 8 

Young  fry,  festunii  in  vrry T 7 


II. — The  VomacnUr  Nunes  of  Fiahei. 

.Mi'Wif*'  or  i  iBiiiiert-aii 14 

Anirlt-m  lilanu'worthy  in  naming  tii<hfH 13 

Knrlniciir  Inirliot 21 

Haiw,  hlauk,  iniH-naiiiHl 18 

B.-aii,  Dr.  T.  II.  on  Imrlot 22 

Bint*  iiick«ir«*l  or  Saiuir** 17 

Bow-hii  liaM  varioiiH  nanioi*   ,. 19 

Britioli  (^liarr U 

Brook  trout  niiK-nau>Ml 13 

of  Canada  in  a  eharr 14 

Brown  trout  an  iiia|iiirolirtat»*  nam** 19 

Burbot  hail  aixtw-n  naniiit 17,  21 

K|Hltt«-<l 21 

■  ■         Anii-rican,  ia  lir»t  naui)' 21 

Chaniplain  aliad  urf  whitftinh 16 

Cheney,  Conimiwiioui'r  A.  N.,  on  nanii' "pike" 18 

C'huli  eel  or  cunk 21 

ConfuHion  in  fiiilKii  iiaineii 12 

C<kI,  freshwater,  or  burlmt 21 

CuKk 17,  21 

Day,  Dr.  FranciH  on  trout  r.  uharr 14 

Dog-fJHh  haa  no  definite  meaning 12 

■I       applied  to  liurbiit 21 

M               M         mud-minuow 19 

iiow  6n{Ami«) 19 

Dutchman,  a  U.  S.  name  for  English  trout 18 


{>•  r 


v2i*iH 


n— tiM  ▼wMndar  *•  —Con, 


r 


Kfl|««» 

jOk,  •uatlil*  <■(  ormAiMd  MMMWilatar*. 
KaUffTMU  aiiMH>|)iiMi  aamm  . 

<imun<iliii( 

lUkr  calM  whilinf. 

Hnrrint,  Uk*.  •  mbmiinw 

Horw  iu«iki-n-i  iun»|i|rfiwl  tu  Cuaair. . . . 

Iitumnii  iif  Maokniiic  Kiv*r. 

•lack  Malnxin,  ii  naniv  fur  pickiwt..   . 

KMKMI,  I»r.  W .  C_.  ntuarka  iin  unobr 

Kiak,  N.  H.  namr  Int  gMinnwi 

IjUMl-kK'kMl  Milinun 

Lkwynr  •|it>iM  lu  Iwrliot  mh<  lariln.'. 

ijMmn  liurnit 

LiiiB,  fivnh  watvr  

Uwh,  th<>  atom- 

Liichv,  liaih  <ir  Inirhiit 

Liiiwr  iir  Ukr  tniut 

Mwikpiwl  ahark,  clw  tniv 

MvM  or  Imrtait. 

Mukincmip-,  iiinuiltiKuf 

Mathrnifiur,  iir  Uirlait. ... 

Miithy 

Minnow,  no  ilf Mnitf  mntninv  .    .     . 

..         h"w  wM-rw-tly  B|.|ili»<l.    ,.'.'[    ■ 

Miaiw  la  mkllv  iIh'  r\k 

Mortality  of  MiHjalM  ahail.    ..'. 

MittVelluiiir^,  »  «>mi|<Mj  nauir 

.Miilli-t,  how  niiiia|i|ilinl 

tin-  trtw 

Miiltifiliiity  of  nanm  oJijwtionaWr.   . 

NmiH-ni'latiirf  a)i<|ulil  uwiat  not  ninfuat-.  . 

<HHt'tal  rriajrta  niialcailInK  owing  to  nanira 

Oiutnanirhr,  nuwilnif  of 

•  hitario  ahad  aw  i(a>i|ii-rMiux 

I'lM'iHi-  Salmon  tht- ir  iliatinctivp  f<«tun« 

I  fnnaylvania  roniuiiaaion  r|u<Jt<^ 

I'ik*'.  a  miifuainir  nanif 

I'il'i-la'n'h  or  l»orr. . 

Piikrrrl,  how  a|>|iliM|  in  Canada 

(jiiinnat 

Kol'Hah  or  Micki'ye  aainHm 

Kii'lianUni,  I >r.  <in  Imrtait. 

Kohin,  wromrly  nainMl  in  America 

Kolnn,  tlw  KnKliah 

Salnio  wilnuiti  a  flctitioiia  aiKvini! . 
Salmon,  Hrof.  .Ionian  on  tlif  nanw. ...... 

"        -lai^k,  a  mianonicr 

Siioiuhanna,  a  niii.nomi»r. ! . . . 
callrd  pikf  |a-rt'h. 
Sardinr,  M>-calM  in  Caiuulu   . . 

Sanger 

Sandre 

Scientific  naniea  liewilderiiig 

Shad,  the  name  niiauaed 

Shad-waiter 

Shark,  mackerel,  miHapolied  to  tunny 
Seven  modea  of  mianamniK  Huhea 

Smelt,  a  whitefixh  caliinl 

"       minnow  called 

Sockeye  aalnion  of  Britiah  Columbia  "." 

Si»itted  burbot 

Spring  aalnion  or  qu:nnat 

Stone,  Mr.  Livingston  on  Kuropean  trout.. . '. 

Tal6,  a  B.  C.  aalnion 

Togiie 

Touladi  in  K.  C.  iiada ...... 

Tradera'  namen  lor  fiah 

Trout,  black  liaaa  culled 

Weaktiah  and  chubcalled    . . . . 

■•        Alekey  ia  the  burlnt 

Tunny  miHnani(>d 

Von  Behr  trr>ut  an  unfortunate  name.. ... 

«'  .;'       J    •','      **"*  orifhnated 

>>  all-eyed  pike  not  a  pike 


ft 

....   II 

19 

17 
IT 

I« 

I? 
14 

IK 

1» 

» 

...     14 

14 

..    It),  21 

■        n 

» 

IT 

.  17.  « 

...     14 

17 

..     n 

14 

» 

.    .   n 

i» 

....  » 
.       u 

.    .       IH 
14 

.  .   n 

21 

.17.81 

. . . .     23 

.  13. 

.    .     14 

..       IH 

. . . .     1ft 

. . .      13 

. . . .    17 

17 

. .  .  IH 
. . . .  Ill 
...     14 

■a 

12 
12 
l!l 
.         I.% 
IH 
...     IH 
.       13 
.       22 
,         17 
17 
12 
1«,  17 
.         17 
17 
...     14 
.        21 
21 
14 
.         21 
1ft 
,. .     1» 
...     14 
14 
.       14 
.       22 
..     18 
.13  lit 
..     17 
.       17 
.       20 
.      20 
.     17 


a\ 

.       IS 
IS 

\r 

IT 

in 

17 

u 

IH 

ift 

» 

.    u 

M 

l«.  21 

« 

17 

17,  aj 

14 
17 
31 

u 

31 
21 
12 

.  23 
t» 
Itl 
U 

.  21 
21 

17,21 

.  23 
1.1 
U 
Itl 
It, 
13 

.  17 
17 

IM 
.      Ill 

14 

23 

12 

12 

lit 

1.% 

IH 

IH 

13 

22 

17 

17 

12 
H,  17 
17 
17 
14 
21 
21 
14 
21 
Kl 
1!» 
14 
14 
14 
22 
II* 
I  IH 
17 
17 
20 
2I» 
17 


rAUK 

WMkaTb  th»  «lk ■.■.■.■.'.■.■.'.'.■.'.'.'.'.'.'". .' .' 19.  \* 

W«UdBM,  liUckhMaUM ■" 

Wbilt4M\.  lM>^r }• 

MlMwhitiaf U 

toimm » 


Mnrlt. 


Whllinc  miHkp|ii>«<i- 

WUmut  •  MUnHWi,  iimih-  nnt  aihiiitvd 

Wrifht,  l*T<4><«i<ir  lUmwy  mt  burbot'a  luunv. 
Yiiumt  fry  muvalkid  minnttwa. 


31 
17 
It 

n 


2ft. 


m  -AeellmtlmttoB  of  lialL 

AcclinwtiMliim,  limit*  of,  littlv  kiMiwn 

AiiM-rioan  bnxk  tiiMit  |4iinlHl  in  Britain 

AiuwInHtMUM  <»■  uu'iHliiitf  ttah 

Atluitio  mIumhi,  irtmitimi  of,  a  partial  kikchm 

Raltic  M«,  varioiM  MiliinstinMl  fltliM  in.     

Harfiirth.  Hr..  iliiw**'  in  iuHi-a|«wning  Hih.. 

Itnu  rt'(  tr  Lakm,  «id  lUid  lotntfru  in 

Hnwdiuc  lA  ini|>mnd«.<l  nalnKin  Hinilttful 

BniwnTslr.  .1.  H«rvi«',  mi  <•(!«<  nt  mviiunnHmt 

Hull'hoad-  i>r  eaittuli  vf  rj-  hunty 

<'»t»rtr<ii  ..HIH  or  H<->ir<.?HlinK  ttnn 

CatHi.li  i^naritNiii  irf  lift* ■ 

Canail'Mi  >and-Uii'k<'<l  wlniun 

M  .1  .<      IhetiriMi  rtwarding 

rmklwi  living  dintam  fttwii  "fa 24. 

CckI  trib«.  arx  marina  rawiit  l>iirl»l 

Codling  aacfiid  intii  frt-ali  watfr 

Ciniditiiiu*  for  accliinatiiation. 

("iix.  I)r.  Philiis  on  land-loi'kMl  tnu'lt 

I  >»l{  il»li,  mariiir  in  f rvali  waUT. . . .         

Kffypt,  fXantplfM  uf  acclimati/.ation  in 

Knvirunnifnt  a«i«u  Bull  (»w  Mr.  .1.  Harvif  Brown) 

Kxtmnra  of  tt-nacity  in  liali-life 

Flimndv.-a  in  frwili  wat«-r         

<  irniinn  carp  t«-naciou>  of  lifr 

*  traylinfT  in  Baltic  and  Caapian  Sni 

<>m'rnMty,  im|iort»nt  rxio-rmu'nt  in 

Ilakr,  niarinr,  found  in  frmili  water^ 

HfiTiiig  triU',  anarln>?iMMiB  p»(iwi»'"  i'f   

(rmh  wat4<r  variety  ni  italtic 

Iwlan.1,  fr«>h  water  itid  in 

.lordaii.  Prof.,  on  Yt-Howaton*- Park  H»hri 

Loetinilit.,  Hv\.  Cathrr,  on  liamin  lakna  in  N.  W.T •  •    ■ 

Ijkntl'lovkKl  aalnion 2ft. 

I.  ■.       in  Norvay -» 

..  Lake  Hunm ■ 

H       Svottinh  f  xpiriuientH 

Melntciah,  l*ro(.  W.  C,  fre«li  wattr  herring  exijerim^nt 

..  ..  yonng  Hat  fl' 'i  in  atrvain*  

Mitchell,  Dr.  .1.  C,  Egypt,  on  Hah  a.cliinatixntion 

<  hitario  aalnion  . 

..     ^{aafieivauii.    

<  hiananicl  v  in  Province  of  ^ueliec ...      

'  lyat^'ra  in  f reah  water 

Papiiieau,  Mr.  Louia,  carp  wwda. 

Paciflo  aalnion,  ►■'eeding  of  land  locked 

Peri'h,  yellow,  in  aea  water. 

Peril iphtnalniua,  nn  ani|>hil)iau  fiah 

Porpoiaea  in  freah  water  (aee  Whalea) 

>4almon  fry  die  in  aalt  water • 

I.       (lareut,  in  »»lt  water  pond 

Hchultx,  Ute  Sir  .I<ihn,  in  planting  N.W.T.  lakes 

tiharka,  marine,  die  in  freah  water 

freah  water  apeciea  of • 

Smelt,  f rmh  water  variety  of 81, 

Sole,  acclimatued 

S|>ring  aalmon  or  quinnat,  land  locked 

8tickleba«ka  in  aait  and  freah  water 

Striped  baaa  in  rivera 

S«ckera  in  hot  watera 


aft 
an 
sa 

34 
.13 

ft) 

31 
31 

.to 

29 
34 
2B 
2S 
2» 
2tl 
31 

aa 

32 


28 
2« 

sn 

34 

27 
.-M 
3ft 
28 
SO 
26 
24 

:«2 

28 
33 
."U 
27 
34 
33 
29 


I 


In. AecUmftfeintioa  of  Fiih. — dmduded. 


Tom-cod  endure  clungaa. 

iraggMted  for  N.W.T.iUkM 

Temperature,  high,  Pmcifio  Mdmon  endure 

Trout,  river,  become  Uke  trout  in  .ScotUnd  

Trout  in  w»rm  water* 

Turbot  in  frwh  water 

Utility  of  Huh  acclimatisation 

Wemem,  land  locked  nalmon  in  lake. 

Wlialeg  in  fre«li  water 

Whelk  (Bureinum)  in  fre«h  water 

Wilniot,  Mr.  8.,  impounded  salmon  in  nalt  water. 


M 
28 
36 
29 

3.-; 

2B 
28 
25 
26 


I. 


PLANTING  YOUNG  FRY:  ITS  COMPARATIVE  ADVANTAGES. 


BY  PROFESSOR   EDWARD  E.  PRINCE,  DOMINION   COMMISSIONER   OF 

FISHERIES,  OTTAWA. 

It  was  my  intention,  in  the  present  report,  to  treat  exhaustively  the  much  disouMed 
question  of  the  planting  of  yearling  or  '  fingerling '  fish,  as  comparKl  with  the  planting 
of  newly-hatched  fry.  The  latter  method  of  stocking  waters  is  that  mainly  carried  out 
in  the  system  of  artificial  fish-culture  conducted  by  the  Department  of  Marine  and 
Fisheries.  The  controversy,  respecting  the  merits  of  the  two  systems,  hasbpen  actively 
carried  on  for  more  than  a,  quarter  of  a  century,  and  fish-culturists  are  still  divided  into 
two  schools,  the  partisans  of  one  school  being  as  emphatic  and  zealous  in  their  own 
special  advocacy,  as  the  partisans  of  the  other.  The  adoption  of  one  system  does  not 
imply  the  total  disparagement  of  the  other,  and  there  is  certainly  much  to  be  said  for 
the  rearing  of  the  fry  of  fishes,  in  our  hatcheries,  until  they  are  robust  and  independent ; 
until,  in  other  words,  they  are  able  to  look  after  themselves.  In  order  to  do  justice  to 
the  two  methods :  the  'young  fry'  method,  and  the  'fingerling'  or  'yearling'  method, 
the  various  poinu  raised  require  to  be  dealt  with  exhaustively  and  I  therefore  propose 
to  treat  in  a  future  report  the  whole  subject  with  some  thoroughness,  in  order  that  the 
practical  aspects  of  the  matter  may  be  fully  set  forth,  as  theoretical  coilsidera- 
tiohs,  have,  it  must  be  confessed,  hitherto  figured  very  largely  in  this  important 
discussion.  My  present  purpose  is  simply  to  state,  in  the  meantime,  the  principal  points 
which  may  be  urged  in  favour  of  the  system  carried  out  in  Canada.  I  shall  do  so  as 
concisely  and  as  clearly  as  I  can,  reserving  for  the  present  those  more  technical  and  com- 
plex features  which  can  be  understood  by  the  embryologiht,  but  are  of  less  moment  to 
the  practical  man,  to  whom  the  more  salient  points  appear,  of  course,  to  have  the  greatest 
weight.  It  is  necessary  to  point  out  that  by  the  term*  fry,  young  fry,  or  newly- hatched 
fry,  is  meant  the  true  larval  condition,  before  the  features  of  the  embryonic  stages  are 
lost.  When  a  young  fish  emerges  from  the  egg,  at  the  close  of  the  incubation  process, 
it  bears  no  resemblance  in  most  cases,  to  the  parent  fish.  It  is,  as  a  rule,  not  at  all 
like  a  fifh  :  but  resembles  a  small  worm  with  a  protruding  bag  of  yolk  attached  to  the 
under  side.  I  have  often  heard  people  declare,  on  seeing  newly-hatched  fish  in  a  jar  or 
tank,  that  they  looked  like  wriggling  insects.  A  minute  scientific  examination  shows 
that  the  young  fish  larva  is  not  only  in  external  form  and  features,  but  also  in  internal 
structure  and  anatomical  arrangement  quite  difierent  from  a  fish,  indeed  is  almoet  as 
unlike  as  the  caterpillar  is  unlike  the  butterfly.  At  first  the  newly-batched  larval  fish 
feeds  only  on  its  store  of  yolk,  but  as  soon  as  this  is  exhausted,  it  begins  to  change  ita 
shape,  the  mouth,  which  at  first  is  not  used  at  all,  becomes  actively  movable  and  numerous 
minute  teeth  protrude  from  the  surface  of  the  jaws.  Indeed,  in  the  young  shad,  for 
instance,  teeth  develop  long  before  the  food-yolk  is  used  up.  The  late  Professor  Ryder 
called  attention  to  this  precocious  appearance  of  teeth  in  the  infant  shad.  Of  his  pre- 
viously published  statement  '  that  the  yolk  £ack  disappeared  on  the  fourth  to  the  fifth 
day  after  the  young  fish  had  left  the  egg,'  he  said  (Bullet.  U.S.  Fish.  Commis.,  1881, 
p.  241) :  '  Although  this  statement  is  in  a  broad  sense  true,  I  find  upon  more  accurate 
investigation  that  there  is  a  small  amount  of  yolk  retained  in  the  yolk-sack  for  a  much 
longer  time.  It  appears  in  fact  that  there  are  really  two  periods  of  absorption  of  the 
yolk  which  may  be  very  sharply  distinguished  from  each  other.  The  first  extends  from 
the  time  of  hatching  to  the  end  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  day,  according  to  temperature. 


8 


daring  which  mwt  of  the  yolk  is  abwrhed The  woond  penod  of  the  kbMrption  df 

the  yolk  extends  in  the  ih^d  over  sbout  twice  th»t  of  the  6nt,  or  about  ten  days  . 
The  function  of  the  yolk^ack,  daring  the  flrrt  period,  appear*  to  be  to  build  up  the 
utnioture  of  the  growing  embryo  ;  during  the  second,  not  to  much  to  build  it  up  a*  to 
BuaUin  it  in  vigorous  health  until  it  can  capture  food  to  swallow  and  digest,  eo  that  it 
may  no  lo*lger  be  dependent  upon  the  store  of  food  inherited  from  its  parent  Minute 
conical  teeth  appear  on  the  lower  jaws  and  in  the  pharynx  of  the  young  shad,  about  the 
second  or  third  day  after  hatohing .. .  I  have  never  observed  food  m  the  alimentary 
canal  until  ten  or  twelve  days  after  the  young  fish  had  left  the  egg.  At  about  the 
beginning  of  the  second  week  considerable  may  be  seen  in  the  livinK  specimens.  But 
the  intestine  is  often  not  yet  very  densely  packed  with  food  even  at  this  period.  At 
the  age  of  three  weeks  an  abundance  of  food  is  found  in  the  intestine.  A  young  flsh  a 
month  old,  or  even  three  weeks  old  in  some  species,  begins  to  assume  the  fish-like  form, 
the  fins  losing  their  embryonic  or  larval  form,  and  the  external  and  internal  structure 
of  the  growing  creature  changes  to  a  more  mature  condition.  Between  theeariiest  or  im- 
mature larval  stage  and  the  more  mature  stage,  when  the  form  of  the  adult  begins  to  be 
recognizable,  there  U  often  a  peculiar  posHarval  stage,  charactonzed  in  some  marine 
species  by  the  most  extraordinary  transient  developments,  which  often  give  the  young 
fish  a  most  grotesque  appearance. 

Broadly  speaking,  then,  there  is  a  larval  and  a  post-larval  condition,  the  latter 
insensibly  passing  into  the  stUl  small,   but  externally  mature  condition  called  by  fa«h- 
culturists  the  fingeriing  stage.     The  latter  is  often  cailed  the  yeariing  stage,  although 
the  fish  may  not  be  a  year  old.     Indeed  the  rate  of  growth  in  any  particular  batch  of 
fishes  varies  very  much.     Frank  Buokland  drew  attention  to  this  in  his  little  work  en- 
titled  'Fish   Hatching'  (Undon,  1863),  and  quotes  an  authority  as  saying  that  of 
three  specimens  of  young  salmon  taken  from  the  Stormontfield  ponds  in  Srotland,  on 
April  1.  1863,  all  of  the   same  age,  one  was  6J  inches  long  and  weighed  646  grains; 
another  was  3*  inches  long  and  weighed  135  grains  ;  an.l  the  third  was  2^  inches  long, 
and  weighed   23  grains.     The  lost  had   the  dark   parr-bands    along    the    sides,    the 
second  had  indications  of  small  scales,  and  in  the  largest  the  scales  were  large  silvery 
and  in  an  advanced  stage  of  growth.     As  Buckland  remarked,  young  fish  whether  kept 
in  hatchery  tanks,  reared  in  large  ponds  or  turned  into  streams,  vary  veiy  much  m 
growth  :  some  individuals  growing  more  rapidly  and  attaining  a  greater  size  than  others. 
In  a  study  which  I  made  at  the  Marine  Biological  Station  of  Canada  of  three  batcheij 
of   Pacific  salmon   fry   this   year,   I   found  a  similar  though     not  quite  «)   marked 
a    diflFerence    in    growth.     The    specimens    in    each    series  (five    or  six   dozen   hsh 
in    each    series)     were    presumably    about    the    same   age,    and  in   one  series    they 
varied  from  42  millimeters  (1U"'>  *»  31   millimetres  (IJin.)  in  length.     In  another 
batch  (belonging  to  the  brood  of  another  year)  they  varied  from  6.5  millimetres  (2^in.)  to 
SC  millimetres  (lAin.)  and  in  another  year's  series  they  varied  from  *J  "oillimetres 
(UHn.,)  to  34  millimetres  (IJin.)    The  weli  known  authority  on  angling,  Mr.  Stoddard 
states,  that  the  nature  of  the  food  greatly  influences  growth  :  '  Trout  were  placed  in  three 
separate  tanks,  one  of  which  was  supplied  daily  with  worms,  another  with  hve  minnows, 
and  the  third  with  those  small  dark  coloured   water  flies  which  are  to  be  found  moving 
about  on  the  surface  under  banks  and  sheltered  places.  The  trout  fed  with  worms  grew 
slowly,  and  had  a  lean  appearnnce  ;  those  nourished  on  minnows,  which,  it  was  observed, 
they  darted  at  with  great  voracity,  became  much  larger  ;  while  such  as  were  fattened 
upon  flies  only,  attained  in  a  short  time  prodigious  dimensions,  weighing  twice  aa  much 
as  both  the  others  together,  although  the  quantity  of  food  swallowed  was  in  nowise  so 
great '     Under  natural  conditions,  however,  where  the  food  available  for  all  the  indi- 
viduals in  a  brood  of  young  is  practically  the  same,  the  difference  in  size  must  be  mainly 
due  to  inherent  variability,  dependent  upon  very  obscure  causes.     Such  vanataon  in 
riowth,  which  is  so  noticeable  within  the  limits  of  one  species  considered  separately,  is 
no  less  marked  when  we  compare  several  different  species  together.    One  kind  or  species 
attains  a  known  average  si7e  at  a  certain  stage  in  the  growth  of  the  young.     Thus  a 
newly  hatehed  salmon  measures  a  little  more  than  half  an  inch  in  length  ;  at  the  fourth 
week  the  larva  has  doubled  its  length,  and  in  the   third  month  it  attaint  two  inches, 
while  in  the  fourth  month  it  is  no  lesa  than  two  and  s  half  to  nearly  four  inches  long, 


and  •  month  later  m  much  m  five  inohes  in  length.  Brook  trout  in  the  fourth  month 
Me  nraally  two  inohea  from  tip  to  tip,  three  inches  when  nine  or  ten  monthi  old,  and 
fire  inehm  when  a  year  old.  Lake  trout  (Salvelinui  namayeutk)  are  six  inches  long  at 
the  end  of  twelve  months,  and  black  bass  are  i'>ur  to  six  inches.  The  growth  of  vpry  few 
marina  larval  fishes  has  been  ohservedrbut  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  a  batch  of  young 
wdf-fish  {Anarrhiehat  lupus),  a  fish  reaching  a  length  of  five  or  six  feet,  the  larval  forms 
were  a  fraction  over  a  quarter  of  an  inch  long  on  hatching  out,  in  the  fourteentli  week  (3^ 
mcmths)  they  were  not  more  than  half  an  inch  in  length,  this  slow  growth  being  proba- 
bly due  to  confinement  in  tanks. 

Marine  fish  beins  as  a  rule  of  very  minute  size  and  delicate  in  organization  when 
hatched  probably  reach  the  sAme  length  as  frosh  water  species  in  a  much  more  extended 
period  of  time.  The  observed  variation,  which  is  frequently  so  very  great  in  young  fishes 
of  precisely  the  same  age,  is  of  moment  in  connection  with  this  question  of  young  fry 
vtrsut  fingerlings.  '  Certain  fishes  moreover  exhibit  a  cannibalistic  habit  at  a  very  early 
stage.  Black  bass  when  very  young,  devour  each  other,  even  when  little  over  an  inch 
in  length,  so  that  it  is  necessary  to  take  special  steps  to  prevent  this.  I  have  on  a 
previous  occasion  (Rep.  Canadian  Lobster  Commiesion,  189H)  pointed  out,  in  the  case 
of  the  lobster,  that  amongst  young  lobster  fry  '  cannibalism  is  frequent,  and  the  method 
adopted  of  attacking  each  other  is  very  striking,  as  the  young  lobster  barely  a  few  weeks 
old  invariably  selects  the  most  vulnerable  point,  viz.,  the  opening  behind  the  head-shield. 
The  stronger  larva  springs  upon  the  back  of  the  weaker  and  savagely  bites  him  at  the 
point  named.'  Frank  fiuckland  describes  the  voracity  of  finserling  salmon  and  trout 
and  said  '  they  will  certainly  eat  the  young  grayling  when  they  ran  catch  them,  for 
they  are  very  active  :  they  also  eat  young  perch.  I  have  placed  perch  spawn  in  their 
tanks,  and  as  the  perch,  which  are  exceedingly  minute,  hatch  out,  they  are  caught  up 
and  devoured  in  an  instant.' 

Whatever  arguments  may  lie  urged  for  or  against  the  prevailing  system  of 
planting  newly  hatched  fry,  it  can  hardy  be  doubted  by  any  fair-minded  critic  that 
the  attempt  to  stock  depleted  waters  with  countless  millions  of  young  fish,  as  is  done  in 
Canada,  must  have  some  Iwneficial  results.  There  is  certainly  much  evidence  in  favuur 
of  the  view  that  benefit  has  resulted.  Would  better  results  follow  the  adoption  of  the 
system  of  planting  advanced  fry  or  fingerlings  ?  There  are  certain  points  urged  agiiiiist 
planting  very  young  fry  which  merit  some  attention.  Nothing,  it  is  said,  can  be  more 
helpless  and  defenceless  than  y^uiig  Hsh  imm»diately  on  hatching  out  They  must  l>e 
at  the  mercy  of  numberless  enemies.  This  objection  has  this  defect  that  as  a  matter  of 
fact  most  of  the  fry  are  some  days,  or  at  any  rate  some  hours  old  when  deposited  in  the 
open  waters  The  planting  is  postponed  until  at  large  quantity  have  liberated  themselves 
from  the  egg,  some  time  is  occupied  in  removing  them  from  the  tanks,  carting  them  to 
the  railway  or  conveying  them  by  wagon  to  the  more  or  less  distant  localities  to  he 
stocked.  In  other  words  the  youngest  fry  are  always  12  to  48  or  72  hours  old  and  are 
not  '  newly  born '  young  fish  when  placed  in  lakes  or  rivers.  Two  or  three  weeks 
elapse  before  all  are  planted,  and  the  fry  are  thus  getting  older  as  each  batch  is  sent  nif 
day  after  day  during  the  distribution.  Hence  the  majority  of  artificially  hatched  fry  are 
really  much  older,  and  must  be  more  sturdy  and  robust,  than  the  delicate  young  fish 
exp<Med  on  the  natural  spawning  beds.  The  further  objection  that  artificially  hatched 
fry  are  suddenly  transferred  fn>m  warmer  water  in  the  hatchery  tanks  to  the  colder 
water  -^f  the  lake  or  stream  outside  is  also  baseless.  The  ample  supply  of  water  pouring 
through  the  hatchery  troughs  has  b«en  found  to  be,  as  a  rule,  many  degrees  colder  thnn 
the  water  to  )«  stocked.  Ice  is  always  used  in  keeping  the  water  cold  when  transporting 
the  young  fish  in  large  tanks.  Records  have  been  kept  showing  that  the  water  in 
the  hatcheries  is  more  equable  and  cool  at  the  distributing  time  than  in  the  waters 
outside.  The  helpless  fry,  it  has  also  been  urged,  being  hatched  under  unnatural  condi- 
tions are  untaught  to  seek  shelter,  and  must  be  devoured  by  watchful  enemies.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  the  eggs  are  taken  from  wild  parent  fish.  The  fry  batched  from 
these  cannot  fail  to  inherit,  by  the  inflexible  law  of  heredity,  the  instincts  of  their 
parents.  They  act,  as  indeed  they  cannot  avoid  acting,  precisely  as  the  young  of  wild  fish 
do.     Hence,  when  the  fry  have  been  carefully  watched  at  the  time  of  planting,  they 


10 


r 


hkve  been  noticed  to  Mt  with  grt»i  •Imrtaam  and  intclligenoa,  aad  at  oaoa  d«rt  off  to 
the  nearest  arailable  ihelter. 

The  objections  asoallj  nrRed,  apply  indeed  wilh  greater  force  to  young  Hi>h  kept 
for  a  long  period  nnder  artificial  conditions,  and  rear«d  to  the  flngerling  or  yearling 
staKe.  Such  young  fish  mast  beoome  aocustomed,to  thi  safe  and  protected  conditions 
provided  for  them  in  the  tonks  or  rearing  ponds.  In  such  ponds  the  usual  enemies  are 
absent,  the  water  as  a  rule  i«  warmer,  and  food  is  supplied  to  them,  of  kinds  and  at 
times  wholly  unlike  those  which  obtain  in  the  cnse  of  naturally  hatched  fish.  '  If  the 
try  are  kept  until  they  are  of  fair  sire,'  wrote  the  late  Francis  Francis,  one  of  the  hest 
authorities  on  iish-onlture,  '  fed  regularly  every  day,  never  seeing  an  enemy  of  any  kina, 
what  » ill  become  of  them  when  they  are  turned  into  deep  water  amongst  foes,  without 
the  preliminary  and  probationary  life  on  the  comparatively  safe  shallows,  being  all  un- 
accustomed to  seek  their  own  food,  or  see  enemies  f  They  are  far  more  likely  to  faU 
victims  then,  and  less  likely  to  thrive  on  their  own  exertions,  unless  it  is  proposed  to 
keep  them  until  they  are  beyond  the  size  taken  by  pike  and  large  trout'  I  cannot  do 
better  than  quote  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Francis  on  a  further  point,  as  it  fully  coincides 
with  the  view  which  I  have  already  published,  and  to  which  I  still  adhere.  « I  have 
heard  people  urge,  that  if  the  young  fish  are  turned  at  an  early  age  into  the  river,  they 
will  fall  a  prey  to  predaoeous  fish.  It  is  possible  that  a  small  percentage  of  them  may, 
but  the  remainder  will  easily  learn  to  know  their  enemies  and  avoid  them  ;  besides,  in 
putting  them  into  the  river,  the  most  shallow  places  at  the  sides,  and  the  most  shel- 
tered spots  should  be  selected,  and  the  fish  should  be  distributed  in  small  numbers  in 
such  places  as  predaoeous  fish  are  the  least  likely  to  come  and  look  for  them.  Added 
to  this,  the  remainder  will  thrive  so  much  better  in  the  wider  area  of  the  river,  and  will 
grow  so  much  faster  that  this  will  counterbalance  any  slight  loss.'  ExperimenU  have 
beer>  iH  with  a  view  of  comparing  the  rate  of  growth  of  fiy  in  confined  waters,  and 
^ha-ilil.  rated  in  a  stream  or  creek  and  it  has  been  shown  that  the  fry  which  were 
plani«.c  .  jon  after  hatching  and  which  subsisted  on  natural  food  under  natural  con- 
ditions grew  much  more  rapidly  than  those  nnder  artificial  conditions. 

I  ain  aware  that  some  experiments  in  the  Detroit  river,  carried  on  in  189",  under 
the  Michigan  F'sh  Commission,  point  to  the  opposite  conclusion,  for  of  a  quantity  of  white- 
fish  (CoreymiHit)  fry  confined  in  boxes  in  the  river  able  to  subsist  on  natural  food,  only 
three  survived  from  April  20  to  July  23,  by  which  time  they  were  nearly  two  inches  in 
length,  but  the  boxes  were  twice  Uinpercd  with,  and  the  results  were  thus  deprived  of 
their  chief  value,  though  it  was  noticed  that  a  batch  of  several  hundred  kept  in  the 
hatchery,  fared  much  better.     '  These  had  grown  rapidly,   much   faster  in    faot  than 

those  in  the  river,'  the  report  states,    '  and  they   were   in   fine  condition when 

moved  (at  about  the  age  of  ten  months)  they  were  three  or  four  inches  in  length.  In 
good  condition,  but  small  for  their  age.'  No  reliable  conclusion  can  be  drawn  from 
this  experiment,  which  is  precisely  the  reversj  of  that  communicated  to  Frank  Buck- 
land.  (See  FisTi  Hatching.  1863,  p.  160.)  '  Amongst  the  advantages  of  eariy  turning 
into  the  nver  must  be  reckoned  that  of  rapid  growth,  ilome  of  those  (wrote  a  cor- 
respondent to  Mr.  Buckiand)  whic"  -ou  and  I  turned  in  were,  after  only  nine  days, 
found  to  be  three  or  four  times  !.  .    in  those  of  the  same   age  left  behind   in   the 

troughs.'  An  assistant  in  this  «.. ,  uient  observed  some  of  the  young  fish  on  the 
shallows,  and  stated  that  one  of  these  liberated  fish  would  weigh  down  four  of  the  fish 
confined  in  the  hatchery  tanks.  This  is  indeed  what  might  be  anticipated.  Most 
animals  are  more  vigorous,  healthy  and  of  more  rapid  natural  growth  than  when 
confined  under  artificial  conditions.     'The  old  idea  (wrote  the  late  Sir  J.  O.  Maitland) 

was  to  turn  out  fish  big  enough to  take  care  of  themselves.'     But   it  is   not   a 

question  of  size,  but  of  food,  habit  and  trabing.  Yeariings  will  live,  it  is  claimed, 
where  young  fry  would  perish  ;  but  planting  of  fish  should  always  be  in  favourable 
localities  only. 

The  main  considerations,  which  weigh  in  favour  of  the  planting  of  newly  hatched 
fry  may  be  summarized  as  follows  : 

1— The  fry  being  placed  in  their  natural  surroundings,  food,  temperature,  and 
other  conditions  must  be  more  favorable  than  in  the  cram^  conditions  of  a  hatcherr 
or  a  rearing  pond. 


11 


3. — Th«  fry  endowed  with  their  natand  inatinota  inherited  from  the  parent  fiah, 
exeroiae  tboM  inatinota  at  the  earlieat  moment,  and  do  not  become  acouatomed  to  an 
artificial  environment. 

3. — It  enal>lea  a  vaiit  quantity  of  young  tioh  to  be  handled,  whereaa,  an  infinitely 
smaller  quantity  alone  can  be  dealt  with  if  the  labour,  expenae  and  difficulty  oi  feeding; 
rearing  and  caring  for  are  to  be  faced. 

4. — Fry  are  most  vigoroua  and  alert  soon  after  hatching,  but  when  kept  con- 
fined and  their  stock  of  food  yolk  becomes  exhausted,  they  are  less  vigorous,  swim  less 
freely,  and  require  great  care  in  management. 

S-— When  fish  are  planted  at  the  young  fry  age,  the  public  receive  the  greatest 
return  and  most  widespread  benefit.  This  would  not  be  possible  were  a  restricted 
quantity  of  young  fish  meroly  available  for  planting.  It  idlows  of  the  maximum  of 
output  at  the  minimum  of  cost. 

6. — Lastly  tlie  planting  of  young  fry  has  been  successful,  in  spite  of  losses  when 
planting,  and  undoubted  losses  (from  predaceous  enemies)  after  planting.  It  is  incred- 
ible that  50  or  80  or  200  millions  of  fry  of  various  fishes  can  be  planted  in  Canadian 
waters,  as  they  hare  been  planted  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have  no  effect 
whatever.  The  popular  opinion,  the  opinion  of  practical  men,  the  strong  conviction  of 
fishermen  especially  is  that  the  beneficial  results  are  patent  and  undeniable. 

It  has  been  shuwu  that  most  of  the  stock  objections  urged  are  not  merely  based 
on  gross  misconceptions,  they  are  the  reverse  of  the  facU^  The  eggs  in  our  hatcheries 
are,  at  any  rate,  safely  shielded  from  numberless  enemies  and  hurtful  influences.  When 
the  fry  hatch  as  Mr.  Seymour  Bower  pertinently  asked  (in  a  paper  in  the  Mich.,  Fish 
Commiss.  Rep.,  1896,)  '  the  question  of  how  much  longer  they  should  be  held,  without 
any  attempt  at  feeding,  becomes  an  importtat  one.  Whitefish  fry,  as  such,  are  never 
more  vigorous  than  at  the  time  of  hatching  :  they  are  t'ree  swimmers,  and  begin  to 
take  food  within  a  very  few  days.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  sooner  they  are 
set  free  in  their  native  habitat,  to  mingle  with  nature's  fry  the  better.  There  is  no- 
thing to  be  gained  by  holding  them  and  there  is  great  risk  in  carrying  them  beyond 
the  time  when  nourishment  other  than  that  supplied  by  the  food  sack  is  essential  to 
normal  development.'  It  is  indeed  impossible  to  supply  food,  at  all  corresponding  to  the 
natural  food  in  quantity,  or  in  its  nature,  to  fry  retained  until  the  post-larval  condition ; 
and  the  resulting  fish  may  be  stunted,  or  at  any  rate  will  bear  evidence  in  the  adult 
stage  of  the  unnatural  conditions  under  which  they  were  reared.  They  will  reveal 
what  Frank  Buckland  called  the  *  semi  tame '  condition  all  through  life. 


13 


[ 


II. 

THE  VERNACULAR  NAMES  OE  EISHES. 

By  Profkssor  E.  E.  Pbince,  Doxikioh  (Tommiisioiibr  of  FuHERin,  Ottawa. 

The  editor  of  »  wall-known  organ  of  the  angling  fraternity  was  compelled,  a  few 
years  ago,  to  admit,  '  the  utter  impossibility  of  ever  clarifying  the  muddle  caused  by 
anglers  dinging  so  persistently  to  local  nomenclature  in  the  identification  and  classifica- 
tion of  fishes.'  Anglers  are  not,  however,  by  any  means  the  worst  offenders,  and  one 
of  the  main  sources  of  confusion  and  uncertainty  in  this  matter  is  the  inveterate  habit, 
prevalent  amongst  ft?bermen  an-l  those  who  handle  fish  commercially,  of  giving  special 
names,  often  without  rhyme  or  reason,  to  the  kinds  of  fish  which  they  send  into  the 
market.  With  regard  to  kinds  which  are  uncommon,  or  of  no  value  for  commercial 
purposes,  no  name  is  too  absurd  to  select,  and  the  fishery  expert  and  naturalist  while 
frequently  experiencing  c'ifiiculty  in  determining  precisely  what  fish  may  be  meant, 
when  a  fisherman  or  dealer  uses  a  special  name  for  a  common  commercial  species,  finds 
the  difficulty  infinitely  increased  when  some  rare  or  uncommon  fish  is  referred  to.  It 
is,  as  a  rule,  impossible  to  know  what  is  meant  when  a  fisheraian  speaks  of  a  '  Sunfish,' 
or  a  '  Dog-fish,'  or  a  '  Minnow,'  for  each  of  these  terms  is  habitually  used  for  half  a 
dozen  creature^  wholly  different  and  unlike.  To  add  to  the  bewilderment,  scientific 
experts  have  in  recent  years  decided  to  throw  aside  generic  and  specific  names,  which 
from  long  use  and  familiarity  have  become  universally  accepted  and  recognized,  and 
have  substituted  for  them,  in  a  great  many  cases,  obscure  and  even  uncouth  and  for- 
bidding names,  which,  unlike  the  names  so  long  adopted,  are  neither  descriptive  nor 
euphonious.  This  exchange  of  well  known  scientific  \iame8  on  which  even  amateur 
naturalists  were  wont  with  some  certainty  to  rely,  has  been  adopted  in  obedience  to  a 
principle  of  priority,  consistent  and  defensible  no  doubt  from  an  antiquarian  point  of 
view,  but  wholly  confusing  and  misleading  from  the  standpoint  of  utility  and  convenience. 
The  once  uniform  and  reliable  scientific  names,  which  were  a  safe  refuge  under  the 
bewildering;  variations  of  local  nomenclature,  have  been  thrown  into  hopeless  and  in- 
extricable confusion.  Thus  the  familiar  Gadus  aeglifiwig,  th.t  common  haddock,  has 
become  Melanogrammug  (uglifinus  the  large  tunny  is  Albacora  thynnus  instead  of 
Thffnnuii  vulgaris :  and  its  close  r^la*'  ve  the  bonito  is  Gymnosarda  pelamii,  instead  of 
Pelamys  aanla. 

It  is  no  matter  of  surprise  that  the  early  settlers  in  this  western  continent,  anxious 
for  old  association's  sake  to  keep  in  use  names  familiar  to  them  in  the  old  land,  should 
have  applied  such  names,  borne  by  very  different  creatures,  to  fishes,  birds  and  animals 
new  to  them  in  this  country  and  bearing  some  more  or  less  distant  resemblance  to  the 
original.^.  Thus  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  the  name  'robin'  was  applied  to  a  bird 
which  resembles  in  hardly  a  single  feature  the  original  /■.rilfuicua  ruhecula,  or  robin 
redbreast  of  England.  The  large  aggressive  loud  voiced  nervous  thrush  'every  motion 
decided  and  alert,'  the  American  robin  ( Menda  migrcloria,)  is  the  reverse  of  the  small 
delicately-formed,  retiring  bird  with  throat  and  breast  of  a  deep  orange  red  colour, 
whoso  song  is  of  a  sweet,  low,  plaintive  character,  and  whose  habit  is  to  haunt  the 
dwellings  of  men  only  in  the  winter  time,  for  the  English  robin,  unlike  ours,  is  non-mi- 
gratory. Our  robin  is  a  typical,  somewhat  noisy,  thrush — the  original  robin  a  retiring, 
tender-voiced  warbler,  indeed  the  Sylviinae  as  a  whole  differ  in  every  feature  from  the 
thrush  family  the  Turdinae  to  which  our  North  American  robin  belongs.  It  was  no 
doubt  for  precisely  similar  reasons,  largely  old  association,  that  the  name  speckled-trout 
or  brook-trout,  was  applied  to  that  most  widely  distributed  and  highly  esteemed  fish 


IS 


S€Uv«l*nut  fontintUu.  In  the  report  nf  the  PennnylvanU  State  Commiasionen  of  Fuh- 
•ries  (1895,  p.  221,)  reference  it  made  to  this  inttuioe  of  mis-nMning,  and  the  following 
remark*  put  the  matter  so  a|  propriately  that  I  quote  the  paragraph  rerbatim  : — 
As  reoently  determined  the  beautiful  brook-trout  of  our  waters  is  not  a  true  salmon 
bat  a  oharr,  a  circumstance  which  need  not  cause  the  angler  or  the  lover  of  this 
attractive  fish  any  sorrow,  since  all  the  luembers  of  this  group  of  salmonoids  are  noted 
not  only  for  their  beauty  and  grace  but  their  gimM  qualities.  No  truer  words  were 
ever  spoken  than  those  uttered  by  an  eminent  ichthyologist  when  ho  declared  that  '  no 
higher  praise  can  be  given  to  a  salmonoid  than  to  call  it  a  charr.'  It  came  by  the  name 
of  trottt  through  the  Pilgrim  fathers  who,  when  they  first  saw  it  in  New  England,  mis- 
took it  for  tlie  some  li*h  they  knew  in  their  own  Devonshire  streams.  Had  they  come 
from  the  north  of  England  or  from  Scotland  and  been  more  observing,  the  error  in  all 
likelihood  would  have  never  been  made.  But  brook  trout  or  speckled  trout  or  charr, 
or  whatever  name  may  be  applied  to  the  fish,  it  needs  no  description.  There  are  few 
anglers  who  are  not  well  acquainted  with  this  most  beautiful  and  graceful  of  fishes.  It 
is  more  eagerly  Boui{ht  for  and  by  the  majority  of  resh  water  sportsmen  in  the  east 
prised  more  than  any  other  member  of  the  finny  tribe,  while  epicures  regard  it* 
flesh  as  unsurpaKsed  for  delicacy  and  richnens  of  flavour.  U  nqaestionably,  the  pure 
cold  water  and  the  OHually  picturesque  character  of  the  streams  in  which  the  brook 
trout  live  has  something  to  do  with  making  this  fish  a  general  favourite  among  sportsmen. 

Amongst  many  evils,  which  result  from  a  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  use  of  popular 
names,  are  the  errors  which  inevitably  ^.ppear  in  statistical  records  and  comparative 
tables.  Unless  the  preciM  application  of  any  particular  name  frequently  used  indiflfer- 
ently  for  several  fishes,  be  fir^it  ascertained,  the  information  aiforded  by  official  reports 
may  be  most  micleading.  Familiar  names  like  trout,  salmon,  smelt,  herring,  and  pike,  are 
used  with  utter  carelessness,  and  so  grossly  misapplied  that  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
how  any  intelligent  community  can  continue,  year  after  year,  to  keep  in  circulation 
names  so  utterly  inappropriate  to  many  of  the  fishes  upon  which  they  have  been  imposed. 

As  an  example  of  the  erratic  use  of  popular  names  even  in  official  publications,  I 
may  instance  the  case  of  a  very  valuable,  and  sumptuously  illustrated  report  of  a  Qame 
and  Fish  Association  on  this  continent,  in  which  I  find  that  the  pike-perch,  dor^,  or 
wall-eyed  pike,  is  repeatedly  called  'Susquehanna  Salmon.'  It  is  so  called  in  the  table 
of  spawning  seasons  given  in  the  book  ;  but  in  the  text,  only  a  few  lines  lower  down 
on  the  same  page,  the  fish  is  referred  to  as  the  wall-eyed  pike,  whereas  in  the  body  of 
the  report  the  same  fish  is  several  times  mentioned  as  the  pike-perch.  This  last  named 
term  is  the  most  appropriate  and  moat  descriptive,  and  has  been  in  common  use  for  a 
century  or  two  at  least  in  European  countries.  This  ioHtance  will  illustrate  the  confused 
state  of  mind — not  to  say  of  nomenclature,  which  leads  to  the  use  of  three  almost  con- 
tradictory terms  for  one  fish  iu  the  pages  of  the  same  report. 

Similarly  the  weakfish  or  squeteague  (Cyno*ei<m  regalis)  in  the  southern  states  is 
called  '  trout '.  Indeed  all  the  various  species  are  thus  erroneously  named,  as  Profes- 
sor Jordan  says  : — '  All  ...  are  absurdly  called  "  trout  "  in  the  southern  States — a 
name  also  applied  in  the  same  regions  to  the  black  bass.' 

The  misnomers,  innocently  applied  for  old  association's  sake,  are  responsible  for 
much  confusion  ;  but  this  has  been  enormously  increased  by  the  lern  defensible  and 
erratic  method,  adopted  by  men  who  have  applied  names  which,  through  ignorance, 
they  imagine  to  be  rightly  applied.  Numerous  examples  of  this  occur  amongst  fishes, 
but  perhaps  the  most  glaring  instance  is  the  case  familiar  to  the  hunter  of  the  magnifi- 
cent stag  of  the  western  hills  and  plains — the  Cemu  canadentis  which  was  called  elk  by 
men  who  no  doubt  imagined,  in  pure  ignorance,  that  it  bore  some  resemblance  by  reason 
of  its  size,  and  other  features,  to  the  elk  of  Europe.  The  European  elk  is  really  almost 
identical  with  the  moose  of  North  America.  The  late  Professor  Spencer  Baird  once 
wrote  :  *  It  is  somewhat  unfortunate  that  the  European  name  of  this  animal,  the  elk, 
should  be  applied  here  in  America  to  an  entirely  different  animal  or  deer.  Much  con- 
fusion has  been  produced  in  thi.n  way,  and  it  becomes  necessary  to  ascertain  the  nation- 
ality of  an  author  before  it  is  possible  to  know  exactly  what  the  word  elk  is  intended 
to  convey.'  Nor  is  the  name  wapiti,  generally  supposctd  to  be  the  Indian  name  for  the 
great  Canada  stag,  more  accurate,  for  Mr.  J.  B.  Tyrrell  has  recorded  that  the  Indian 


14 


r 


wune  for  thu  flne  BaaMBal  ia  '  wMkaaew, '  Error*  in  nonmoUtaro  hardly  I«m  gUriaf 
•re  not  unoomnion  in  the  BMiing  of  fiahw,  indMd  they  are  far  too  frequent 

There  are  indeed,  ■peaking  in  general  terms,  at  leaet  Mven  wty«  in  which  the 
names  of  flshea,  a«  of  birJs  and  other  animals,  have  bevn  ohoeen  and  vpplied  on  thia 
oontinent.  First,  we  may  note  the  adoption  of  Indian  or  Indu-Frenob  names — namaa 
which  the  early  Mttlera  continued  to  apply  to  animaU  because  they  were  already  in 
use.  Am  a  ruir,  these  early  namtM  always  more  or  less  accurately  deiicribe  features  in 
the  torms  on  which  they  were  bestowed.  Thus  tlie  name  maskinong^,  commonly,  but 
very  erroneously  spelt  rauskellanste  or  masoalonge  in  the  United  States,  is  really  an 
Indian  name,  the  Chippewa  name  for  pike  being  '  Kenosha '  and  the  prefix  Mis  or 
Mas  means  liirge  or  great,  so  that  MaHkenoeha  or  Maskinoge  (corrupted  into  Maski- 
nonge)  ia  really  a  large  deformed  pike.  So  also  the  word  ouananiche,  sometimes  Hpelt 
wananiohe,  or  winninish,  is  really  the  old  Muntagnnis  Indian  name,  the  Montagnais 
Indianu  being  the  Algonkin  tribes  who  dwelt  in  the  wild  mountainous  Saguenay 
country,  as  did  also  the  Naskapis  or  Labrador  Indians.  In  dome  lotrned  and  ex- 
haustive articleH  upon  tlfe  original  name  for  the  '  land-looked  saluion '  of  tjuebec 
Mr.  EL  T.  D.  Chambers  has  pointed  out  that  the  usual  signitication  '  little  salmon ' 
(iche  or  u/te  being  a  Montagnais  diminutive  termination)  is  not  correct,  owen-o, 
pronounced  '  when-na '  is  an  interrogative,  while  ounann  or  unani  is  an  eddying  pool 
below  a  fall  or  rapid  ;  and  from  either  terms  may  have  originated  the  word 
'  ouananiche,'  which  may  thus  mean  '  the  little  what-is  it  fiih '  or  the  '  little 
below- the- rapids  pool  fish,'  both  of  which  names  may  be  paralleled  by  many  examples 
in  Indian  nomenclature.  Thus  the  large  Mackenxie  river  fiKxl-fish,  combining  features 
of  the  pike  family  and  the  whitefish,  so  puzzled  the  early  French  explorers  that  they 
called  it  the  'dont-know-what-flsh, '  or  the  'undetermined  iish '  the  inconnu-^a 
name  which  the  fish  permanently  bears.  The  word  Touladi — a  variety  of  the  great 
lake  trout  is  practically  the  old  Indian  name,  whereas  "  lunge  "  the  name  in  some  parts 
of  eastern  Canada  for  the  same  fish,  is  no  doubt  a  French  term  having  reference  to  the 
length  of  the  body  in  this  species  as  compared  with  the  brook  trout  or  the  whitetish. 
The  name  for  the  small  but  valuable  saimonoid,  the  blue-back  salmon  of  the  Froser 
and  other  British  Columbia  rivers,  viz,  the  Sockeye,  is  really  that  of  the  Indians 
inhabiting  the  lower  part  of  the  Fraser  Iliver—  the  word  being  8aw-(|uai  or  Suck-kin,  a 
name  which  is  replaced  by  the  term  Ta-lo  higher  up  the  course  of  the  river. 

It  may  be  pointed  out  that  in  the  United  States  the  fish  is  usually  known  as  the 
red-fish,  more  perhap><  on  account  of  the  brilliant  red  colour  assumed  by  the  male  when 
on  the  spawning  grounds,  than  the  deep  red  flesh,  which  is  very  characteristic  of  this 
species  and  gives  it  its  rpevial  value  on  the  markets. 

Un  the  other  hand  such  names  as  gospereau  for  the  migratory  alewife,  called  'kiak' 
in  Nova  Scotia,  is  clearly  a  French- Acadian  nam",  and  it  may  be  that  togue,  as  cer- 
tainly longe  or  lunge  applied  a*  already  stated  to  varieties  of  the  great  lake  trout  in  New 
Brunswick  and  the  province  of  Quebec,  are  French,  unless  the  word  togue  be  Indian. 
Dr.  Perley  says,  however,  that  the  word  to)tue  is  used  by  the  lumbermen,  while  "  the  In- 
dians designate  it  by  a  name  equivalent  to  fi-esh-water  cod.' 

Second,  we  may  note  that  uf  the  names  applied  on  grounds  of  old  association, 
perhaps  the  most  patent  is  that  of  the  adoption  of  the  name  brook-trout,  or  sptckled 
trout,  for  a  fish  which  is  not  in  a  strict  scientific  sense  a  true  trout  at  all  ; 
but,  OS  already  pointed  out,  is  really  a  charr,  and  closely  allied  to  species  of  charr 
found  somewhat  locally  in  lakes  in  Great  Britain  and  certain  European  countries. 
The  fish  which  occurs  in  certain  Scottish,  Welsh  and  Cumberland  lakes  in  the 
British  Isles,  and  is  most  closely  related  to  our  brook  trout,  in  not  called  a  trout 
at  all,  but  is  known  as  a  charr.  The  genuine  brook  trout,  the  Salmo  Jario  is  a 
true  Salmo,  and  not  to  be  confused  with  any  member  of  the  genus  Salvdintis,  or 
charrs.  In  size  and  in  many  features  our  Salvflinus  fontinali*  or  brook  trout,  recalls 
the  trout  of  the  old  world,  and  the  earliest  English,  Scottish  and  Irish  settlers  liked  to 
think  that  the  streams  in  the  new  land,  like  those  in  the  old,  were  trout  streams. 
'  When  the  New  England  States  were  fir<t  peopled  from  Britain,'  said  the  late  Dr. 
Francis  Day,  "  this  fish  was  called  a  "  trout  "  for  but  few  of  the  early  emigrants  could 
have  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  a  "charr,"  and  they  gave   it   the  name  that  most 


15 


iiMrly  ramioded  them  of  »  form  whioh  axUtad  in  the  mother  oooatiy.'  Thui  they 
hftbituftllT  ipoke  of  the  Caneduui  charr  m  the  brook  trout  or  tpeokled  trout  Thi*  wm 
done  deliwratelv  and  with  the  knowledge  that  thia  trout,  like  flah  in  the  lake*  and 
streams  of  North  America,  wan  not  the  same  as  the  trout  of  Enxlish  rivers  and  Scottish 
bums.  Dr.  Jordan  has  on  many  occasions  pointed  out  with  iiingular  cleameHs  the  main 
points  in  which  the  American  brook  trout  or  charr  differs  from  the  original  brook  trout 
ai  Eon^.  Referring  to  the  almost  nnavoidabla  blunder  of  the  white  settlers  on  this 
continent,  he  says:— 'Finding  no  real  trout  with  black  spota  and  large  scales  in  the 
rivers,  and  having  forgotten  the  name  of  •'  charr,"  they  gave  to  thb  fish  the  name  of 
trout,  or  speckled  trout,  or  brook  trout,  and  in  spile  of  the  fact  thai  in  reality  it  is  not 
a  trout  but  a  charr.  the  name  uf  brook  trout  is  likely  to  adhere  for  ever  to  the  Salvelinut 
foHlinalu.  Real  trout  there  are  none  on  our  Atlantic  Coast,  and  salmon  trout  is  likewise 
wanting,  but  the  name  salmon  trout  is  often  given  to  brook  trout,  or  charr,  which  has 
run  out  into  the  sea  ;  and  it  is  also  often  given  to  another  charr,  a  very  large,  coanie 
species,  in  which  the  red  spoU  have  faded  out  to  a  cream  colour,  which  is  found  in  all  the 
lakes  from  Alaska  to  Maine,  across  the  northern  half  of  our  continent  This  is  the 
great  lake  trout  (Salvelinii*  namajfcunh),  and  except  for  its  larg«  site  and  comparative 
ooarsenesH,  it  would  never  be  mistaken  either  for  trout  or  salmon.  The  name  salmon 
trout  is  wholly  inapplicable  to  it' 

In  a  very  clear  and  luminous  way  this  eminent  authority  thus  compares  the  species 
to  which  the  names  'trout,'  'salmon,'  and  'charr,'  were  originally  applied.  He  further 
says  :— '  In  order  to  get  a  better  idea  of  the  proper  application  of  the  various  vernacular 
nnmes  that  are  used  in  America,  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  Euripe,  the  source  from 
which  these  names  have  been  drawn.  Fiwt,  we  have  a  large  fish,  common  in  the  salt 
waters  of  northern  Europe,  spending  most  of  its  life  near  the  shores  in  regions  where  the 
water  is  cold  and  clear,  and  ascendinjf  the  rivers  in  the  spring  when  the  high  water 
comes  down  from  the  mountains,  going  through  the  rapids  with  great  force,  leaping  cat- 
aracts, and  finally  casting  iu  spawn  on  the  gnivetly  bed  of  a  small  stream.  This  was 
known  to  the  Latin  writers  as  Salmo,  the  word  coming  from  talio,  which  means  "  to 
leap,"  and  in  the  different  languages  which  are  derived  from  the  Latin  having  as  its 
names  some  form  of  the  word  "salinoa"  The  scientitic  name  of  this  fish  is  Salmo 
talar.  Very  similar  to  the  salmon  in  all  technical  respects,  like  it  having  black  spots 
over  the  surface  of  the  body  and  rather  large  silvery  scales,  is  a  smaller  fish  which 
rarely  descends  to  the  sea,  and  makes  its  home  in  the  rivers  and  lakes  throughout  north- 
ern and  central  Europe.  This  fa'sh  was  known  by  the  name  of  Fario  to  the  old  I^atin 
writers,  the  most  important  of  whom,  in  this  regard,  was  Ausonius,  who  wrote  feelingly 
and  poetically  of  the  fishes  of  the  River  Moselle.  From  the  Latin  word  "  fario  "  comes 
the  German  name  "  forelle."  This  fish  is  the  trout  of  all  English  writers,  the  trout  of 
Izaak  Walton,  and  the  iicientific  name  is  Salmo  fario.'     Professor  Jordan  also  very  lucidly 

refers  to  the  species  on  this  continent,  which  received  the  European   names,  saying  : 

In  the  lakes  of  (ireenland  and  the  eastern  part  of  British  America,  the  European 
charr  {Salvelifuis  alpinim)  is  as  abundant  as  it  is  in  Europe— a  fact  which  has  been  onlv 
lately  made  manifest,  and  even  yet  there  is  some  question  whether  some  of  these  which 
are  found  in  the  lakes  in  New  Hampshire  have  not  some  time  or  other  been  brought 
over  and  planted  there  from  Europe. 

In  the  lakes  of  Maine,  and  on  the  north,  there  is  still  another  charr,  smaller  and 
finer  than  the  European  one,  the  Blue-back  trout  of  the  Rangley  Lakes,  known  as 
Salvellnus  oquamia. 

"Thus,  instead  of  one  of  the  salmon,  salmon  trout,  trout,  and  charr,  of  Europe,  we 
have  in  the  Eastern  States  the  same  salmon,  the  same  charr,  and  three  other  charrs,  but 
neither  the  trout  nor  the  salmon  trout. 

In  coming  to  the  Pacific  coast,  the  settlers  of  California  brought  the  names  with 
them  from  the  East,  but  found  none  of  the  fi-shes  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed. 
Salmon  they  found,  similar  in  habits  and  in  value  as  food,  but  many  of  them  larger, 
finer,  and  vastly  more  abuutlant  than  any  of  the  salmon  of  Europe.  California  salmon 
differ  from  all  the  rest  of  the  salmon  family,  in  the  fact  that  the  number  <rf  rays  in  the 
anal  fin  is  froin  fourteen  lo  twenty,  while  in  all  the  salmon  and  trout  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic  this  fin  contains  no  more  than  nine  or  ten  rays.     The  Pacific  coaat 


Jmf 


u 


r 


■almon  have  »lio  m  inorwuwd  namber  of  btmnohkMt«gali,  an  ineraaMd  niunbar  of  gUi 
rakan,  and  a  maoh  largar  namber  of  pyloric  aeem,  or  glands  about  tha  sUmiaoh.  Tbajr 
are,  tberelbra,  in  atrietDaai,  not  aalmon  at  all,  hut  •omething  mora  intmuely  Mlmon  than 
the  falinon  of  Europe  itaalf  rwlly  U.  Tbar  have  therefore  been  plaoed  in  another  genoa 
known  an  OneorK^ehut.  For  the  lack  of  any  other  oommon  name  they  are  afwan 
■poken  of  and  will  alwaya  be  oannrd,  at  long  aa  the  canning  industry  last*,  under  the 
name  of  SaloKm.  The  Chinotdi  n«ln^  Qttinnnt,  waa  early  applied  Vj  them,  and  if  we 
feel  the  need  of  iome  other  nanw  to  diatinguiah  them  from  real  aalHiOn  we  may  call  the 
Pacific  coaat  lalmon  Quinnat,  or  Quinnat  lalmon.  Theie  apeciea  all  live  in  the  ocean, 
aacend  the  riven  in  the  spring  and  rammer,  spawn  in  fresh  water  in  the  fall,  the  young, 
as  toon  as  they  are  able  to  swim,  floating  Uil  foremast  down  the  river  and  growing 
rapidly  as  soon  as  they  reach  the  ocean  and  the  peculiar  ocenn  food.  There  are  five 
species  of  th«»e  Quinnats,  varying;  in  sixe,  colour,  *o.,  and  differing  especially  in  the 
quality  of  the  flesh  :  but  all  of  the  lame  genus. 

Besides  the  salmon,  the  settlers  of  California  found  in  the  bro'ks  itn  abundance  of 
what  they  called  trout.  These  are  blaek-tpotUd,  nilverscaled,  and  in  ever*  way  dottly 
rftemUt  the  trout  of  Europe,  and  are  wholly  unlike  the  oharr,  or  so-ealled  trout  of  the 
Eastern  States.  The  name  trout  by  rights  belongs  to  these  fiihes,  and  they  are  placed 
in  the  genus  Salmo.  A  charr  is  also  found  in  Pacific  waters,  but  as  the  name  '  oharr '  had 
been  wjiolly  forgotten  by  our  ancestors,  they  could  only  call  this,  like  the  others  a  trout 

A  third  mode  of  naming  and  one  which  has  led  to  some  confusion  is  that  of  the  inno- 
cent application  of  names,  which  appear  to  the  ordinary  mind  appropriate,  but  are  in 
reality  not  tuiuble  and  not  correct.  Thufi  the  term  lake-herring  is  usually  given  by 
fishermen  and  dealers  to  fishes  (of  several  species)  which  are  really  whitefishes  and  not 
herring  at  all.  The  so-called  herring  of  the  great  lakes— as  also  the  'long-jaw' 
(Coregonvi  hoyi)  imd  the  'blue  fin'  (C.  msrr»/<Mmiii),  all  belong  to  the  same  group  as 
the  true  whitefisb,  indeed  the  term  leaser  whitefishes  should  be  applied  to  these  species, 
which  have  all  the  characters  of  true  salmonoids,  and  not  one  feature,  except  size  and 
silvery  brightness,  to  entitle  them  to  be  called  clupeoicls  or  herrings.  In  other  words  the 
term  herring  is  in  the  highest  degree  erroneous  and  misleading.  A  similar  case  is  that 
of  the  so-called  shad  in  many  inland  waters  of  Canada.  The  prooess  is,  however,  the 
reverse  of  that  just  referred  to.  The  shad  is  a  true  clupeoid— a  typical  member  of  the 
herring  family,  though  larger  than  the  familiar  Clupea  harengu»  and  reaching  a  weight 
of  no  less  than  four  to  six  pounds— the  average  being  one  or  two  pounds.  The  name 
has  long  been  appli'<i  or  mis-applied  to  certain  varieties  of  true  whiteflsh  in  some 
localities.  Thus  in  I^ake  Champlain  and  Memphremagog  the  fishermen  for  years  have 
made  catehe*  of  what  they  called  shad,  but  which  proved  to  be  true  whitetish,  of  the 
smaller  elongated  species  known  as  Coregonut  quadrUateralu.  Official  statistics  have 
long  recorded  catches  of  shad  in  these  inland  lakes  of  Eastern  Canada ;  but  they 
have  been  demonstrated  to  be  really  catches  of  whiteflsh.*  These  catches,  it  may  be 
added  were  made  in  November,  the  close  season  for  whitefish  ;  but  being  regarded  aa 
shad,  the  law  wa.s  never  applie<l,  and  the  fish  were  thus  destroyed  in  the  November 
spawning  season.  The  term  shad  is  miupplied  in  Lake  Ontario — being  there  used  to 
signify  a  small  and  worthless  clupeoid,  which  dies  mysteriously  in  vast  schools  every 
summer.  .Mr.  A.  Nelson  Cheney,  State  Fish  Culturist  for  the  state  of  New  York, 
writes  of  this  fish  '  It  is  abundant  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  entering  streams  to  spawn, 
and  also  found  in  the  interior  lakes  of  this  state,  where  it  is  scientifically  known  aa 
variety  J(v<igtri».  The  name  saw-belly  is  given  to  it  in  Lake  Ontario  and  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and,  I  think,  in  Lake  Cayuga,  where  it  swarms  and  where  great  multitudes  die 
every  year  in  early  summer.  Fro  n  the  best  information  obtainable  the  fish  die  from  a 
change  in  the  temperature  of  the  water.  Coming  from  the  deep  cold  water  of  the 
bottom  into  the  warm  surface  water,  heated  by  the  summer  sun,  they  make  a  spasmodic 
movement,  turn  over  and  die  in  such  quantities  that  the  surface  of  the  water  is  covered 
with  them,  and  it  is  sometimes  a  problem  to  get  rid  of  their  decayed  and  decaying 
bodies'  'They  are  very  generally  called  shad  along  the  Canadian  shores  of  fiake 
Ontario,  and  "the  name  is  of  course  wholly  inappropriate,  as  is  also  a  name  frequently 

"Ur.  Hmrt  Mfrrism  ixniited  out  in  181*3  that  the  nhad  in  Lake  Champlain  were  really  whitefiah.    Bull. 
V.  S.  V.  Conim.,  Vr.l.  IV.,  y.  287. 


IT 


applied  to  thcM  inwll  IkndlookMi  gMparMu,  ris.,  inanbadcn,  whieh  luUDe  belonga  to  • 
vtry  difbrtnt  iMiiiber  uf  the  harriog  funiljr  and  thould  bn  oonflned  to  Brtvoortia  (yniM- 
nut.  The  term  ihcd  ia  alio  wronglv  applied  to  another  olupeoid  Dorotoma  erptdianum 
indeed,  excepting  the  tomewhat  abeurd  name  '  Hnirjr-baok,'  the  foar  or  five  popular 
namea  which  are  given  lo  that  ipcciea  all  imply  that  it  i«  a  Hhad — the  ternw  in  common 
UM  being  :  gizxam  ihad,  hickory  tliad,  mud  nhad, and  whitoeyed  Hhad,  whcreau  it  ia  not 
a  ahad  at  all ;  but  a  largi>-aized  member  of  the  herring  group,  having  a  hard  muwular 
atomach,  derp  Imdy,  aroall  head,  and  a  long  hair  like  projection  from  the  hind  border  of 
the  duraal  Bu,  really  the  laHt  bony  ray  of  that  ftn.  In  certain  rivera  in  Louisiana,  in 
which  Dr.  Rvermann  atated  that  there  wait  no  evidence  of  the  exiatence  of  any  apwiea 
of  truA  ahad  {Alum),  a  herring-like  apeviea  Signalom  alehafalaifir  ia  called  hIihiJ  by  all  the 
ttaherroen.  The  term  '  whiting'  which  ia  really  the  popular  name  of  a  Europtntri  flab 
clooely  r«lat«<l  to  the  haddock  and  cod,  and  named  lladut  murlanguB,  ia  applie<l  along  th* 
Canadian  ahore  to  a  widely  different  fiah,  viz.,  the  ailver  hake  (Merluceiun  bilinearU) 
whicli  mteinbltM  the  true  whiting  in  scarcely  a  single  prominent  feature.  On  tha 
Paoiflo  ooiut  the  name  whiting  ia  aiuiilarly  applied  to  M»rlueriu»  prodwlua,  while  in 
New  York  Htate  the  whiteflah  (Cor«gonu$)  ia  knnwn  a*  the  whitinj^  in  man}'  localitiea. 
A  aimilar  error  waa  made  in  the  caae  of  Afnnlieirr/tu*  AiiymrttHuii  and  Afirtieirrhua 
littoralu  neither  of  which  flihe**  are  in  any  way  allied  to  the  ()adida>,  to  one  of  which 
tho  name  whiting  haa  been  for  centuriea  applied. 

The  term  ahad-waiter,  though  an  erroneoua  name,  ia  not  iteriouHJy  confuaing.     It 
has  been  adopted  in  many   lakes  in    Eastern  Canada  for  the  Hmall  whiteflah  Coregontts 
</iiadrilaleralu,  for  which  the  name  ahad  has  been  erroneoualy  choaen  in  other  plocea  as 
mentioned  above.    Along  the  Atlantic  coast  t.hi-  terms  horae  mackerel  and  mackerel  ahark 
are  applind  to  the  tunny  {ThynnHn  tliifiinu»)  both  names,  having  this  element  of  juatili- 
cation  that  the  tunny  is  a  gigantic  and  voracious  member  of  the  family  .Smmbrvd(p 
the  mackerels,  but  the  horse  mackerel  is  in  reality  Caranx  trachuru*  the  scad  or  \ 
mackerel,  represented  on  our  shores  by  Caran.r  hippog  or  Caratu- rryao»,  and  the  mackt 
shark  ia  Lamita  rornubira — known  also  as  the  porbeagle  shark. 

There  is  less  objection  to  the  use  of  the  word  loach  or  loche  for  the  burbot, 
or  freshwater  ling,  also  called  the  cusk,  and  the  name  is  confined  mainly  to  the  prov- 
ince of  Quel)ec,*  no  doubt  brought  by  the  early  French  immigrants,  who  were  familiar 
with  a  small  eel-like  Ash,  the  groundling  or  stune-loach  {XemacfvUHs  barlialula)  whicli 
Dr.  Day  states  is  known  as  la  to(he  fraitehe  in  France.  It  is  a  peculiar  specialised  little 
fish,  lurking  at  the  bottom  of  stony  brooks  and  rivers,  and  rarely  exct^din^  five  inches 
in  length.  The  burbot,  at  a  cursory  glance,  recalls  the  brown,  slimy,  eel-like  European 
loach,  and  la  loche  was  a  name  instinctively  chosen,  though,  as  stated  on  a  later  page, 
the  Canadian  fish  rejoices  in  no  less  than  fifteen  or  sixteen  more  or  less  inappropriate 
names  ;  perhaps  the  most  absurd  and  unsuitable  for  this  ugly,  slimy,  dull-coloured, 
and  inactivr  fish,  is  the  term  trout,  which  in  some  localities  m  the  United  States  boa 
lieen  applied  to  it.  Dr.  ,Jordan  gives  the  name  of  Alekey  trout,  as  one  of  the  i>opuiar 
names  of  this  voracious  fresh-water  cod,  or  rather  ling,  {Lota  macnlona)  which  some  old 
authority,  it  is  reconied,  pronounced  to  be  a  hybrid  between  an  eel  and  a  trout. 

A  fourth  mode  of  false  nomenclature  is  that  of  the  adoption  of  names  already  ap- 
propriated and  universally  accepted  for  certain  fish  and  their  application  toother  wholly 
different  fish  ;  some  fancied  justification  being  found  in  the  habits,  the  form  or  the  teeth 
of  the  fish.  Thus  the  word  '  pike  '  has  become  venerable  as  the  distinguishing  name 
for  the  Esocida-,  yet  the  term  pike,  usually  qualified  by  the  word  'yellow,'  or  'blue,' 
is  very  generally  applied  to  fishes  more  closely  related  to  the  perch  family,  indeed  the 
long-used  scientific  name  Lurto-perca,  or  pike-perch,  was  an  appropriate  and  descriptive 
one.  In  Canada  these  fish,  of  which  there  are  at  least  three  species  in  the  Dominion, 
are  called  pickerel,  and  the  yellow  species,  or  American  Sandre,  (Stizottedium  vitreum), 
is  called  dore  in  Quebec,  and  indeed  amongst  French-Canadians  generally.  The  sauger, 
or  Canadian  sandre,  also  called  blue  pickerel  (StizMledium  canaderue)  is  often  called 
blue  pike  by  United  States  fishermen  and  sportsmen,  who  also  distinguish  both  species 
as  wall-eyed  pike.     Similar  confusion  has  arisen  in  relation  to  the  word    '  pickerel,' 

The  name  lush  or  loche,  is  in  uae  in  Alaska. 
E.  B.  P  — 2 


Il 


r 


•  •«»"  'P^rfw  (or  ■awll  MMi 


UnlUd  HutM  ».™»  , 
»»M<i  pike  (iiMi.,)  u 


Bbwt  of  Um  JW 


^JM<*^».or  pik^Kh;  bat  in  th* 
fcmJIy.     Mr.  A.  N.  Ch«i,,,  whooT^ 


tar.  alfMdjr  had  rMuon  to  qootv,  tuM  wriit^^^lZVJ  "'■.^'  ^"  '-■"••r.  "bom  I 
fuioo  of  th.  nuM.  •  pik.,'  "pUW-  IT  «Si  7^  ^'  ■»*?  *'»'■  '«'••«'«'»  of  til.  ooo. 
'  In  N.W  York  But;  tb;  JK  Zu«t * /tSuI  TJIIIl!  «*"?  *"•  7."^  »»  '•»«»»»^ 

ov.r  to,i.p.nit.  th.  pik^  the  pirk.r.lMd  uT.  LJi.Z.  u'^'":.  '  ^•'^  ^'^'d  «»•'  •nd 
rt^n  why  I  refer  ^itato  th.  "DteK"  i!  fl^T^'*'^  ^'.  ^^^bing  th.m,  .od  th. 
•ppHction.  m.d.  toTh.  FcSt.  F^h  ^  0.1  C  '^•"'^-  '*^.*'  "'"■  *  '"»  "^  «S 
Mked  for.  .„d  with  on.  «Xtion  I  <Soo^dS  t^TTK '"  •^'?'' "P'"''''"' "  "•" 
the  pik.  Th.8ut.do<«  notpVVteXof  th.St.  #  .^VP}}^1  rwlly  wUh«l 
hut  It  doe*  propMatc  th.  nikZltUk  ^j  .  "?"  P'"*  '"""'y.  but  the  niMkinonin  • 
picket!  on  ocSII^rbut'*2w':Jr^l'  ^h'*  S^-  ^''^^^  'H.  pik.  'JS.' 
Picker.1  .r,.  di.tribiit«l  in  State  waton.  t^  nl^^J  *"•  !*  •«'"'''•«»  wh.n  pik.  or 
Urai  to  other  fl,h,  and  ib.t  inSi.  tW  „^J  ?^  "T"  "^'^  "»••«  th.r  will  do  no 

water  th.  State  will  not  fSiirthei^iSrin;*  '^V,'*  P/^T' •-  "^'-^y '"  ^h^ 
•re  procured  only  when  netting  inland  UkRr  other  fl.h*"'*/!^"'*'  '"'  ''»»ributioB 
pike  tnbe  we™  taken.  They  ,4  b.h.tXd  !!.;«•  n  "•''•"r  *'"'  ^'  "O"'  "f  the 
|t  i.  not  n.c^ry.  for  th.y^.rp.rh.rth^™:^f  •ji&r^.'r'^'^l''  '"  "•"»'"»y-  ^at 
h»ve  hnlf  a  chai.c.  during  the  Ln^ZL  /  ^  for  their  eggn  to  hatch,  and  if  thev 
their  number,  in  a  pond^o  iake^ut  fh^Tv^  1  '"^'^  *''i  "«^'"-  """«ri*"r  "^"^ 
.pear  and  fcun  when  they  run  into  the  «hilln  7^'  '•**"  '^*  '"•'•''  '"^  ^^e  man  wkh 
B<.rn.  told  „,e  of  pmp.K.ti"J  the  oik.  and  thL  M  ^^  'P'*""  '^*"'  '«'•  Count  von  dem 
how  the  pik.  fry  LrU  thi^ujh  imo  the  JL  ::J,'rnd"  '  H  r  "il!""-^  -  Uennany,  and 
fore  he  knew  of  the  roinglinR  of  the  finhM      T  h.        ^  ""'^  '""^  ""  »*'"  '««•  '^Z  h^ 

that  had  been  living  on   black  ba,«  f™  Vej^hJ^  J?     ^r"*'"'  '~'"  '"*«'>*•'»  »'-«  pike 
Mventeen  inches  long.'  "^  ''•'«'"^  wmething  over  two  poundS,  and  were 

th«till?er„'on.TL"r"ia''„"^^^^  ---  *«  North  American  fish  i« 

either  already  app-prill  'ft'wriM tt'^h't  ""^' ^  -™« 

•ppropriatenes.  or  utility.  It  i«  surnrisinl  h^^  '  "'"'^  •'*^"*^  «""«•«•  without 
....  Imnnful,  and  even  cul,  Jl  |,  .3  of  '^chr."*"^  «.«.,  may  be  f  nd  of  thi.  errat"o 
'  sHlmon.' or  usually  .jack.ialn;„,?u,H  ^TV'^''  tor  a.b^.  Thu.  the  term 
I;..  k..rel  or  th.  walleyed  pike.  The  Zor  of  th."  ^'•"'"'"PP',  "r*""  '"■•  '»■«  Canadian 
that  great  attention  h,u  Ln  paid  ■£  the  State  F  IT  ^'^'•''  <''""*'  '«»«>  "'"'^d 
the  county  acljacent  to  St.  I^miM)  to  the  n.!.,.  .•  .  J-omrawsioner  of  that  section 
jack-salmon.,  while  in  Peaniyfia  if  ^S**  'he".S  '""^  PlI'^P*''^''  locally  called  the 
the  word  -trout'  i.s  applied  to  the  lanje  mTu  hed  h.ltT"''*'*,""*  *''""'"'  ^'"""'y 
•n  Honda  and  most  of  the  southern  states  K.  *h^^'  °'^.''  "'"'^  ""'"'K"  »«« 
probably  the  striped  b^.     Frequc^ntlv  the  „i^     .  *'**  ■PP"*^   »«  *»>«  »«»  »««, 

W.  as  though  to  reconcile  theT>rtluVn  to  r/„^^''*"  '/"!!*  '"  «*"""  ^  ^h"  S 
oould  hardly  he  mistaken  by  theTeS  oTirvl^^  T"^  "^"'•'  ^""'  '"^  «  g"^"  fout 
b..au.y  of  northern  waters.^  The  btck  C  hL^  *'""  'j'^^''^'  "''»'>y-'i''t^  "peckled 
the  way  of  inappropriau>  naming,  for  the  7^riZ7„'  T'^.r"  "TJ^  ""It-^'tnTent  in 
tha  there  is  no  lUh,  not  excfptinVthe  cT.mell;^?  u^''""'"'  ^'^^^^  P"  *^^'  *»""  »» 
variation  than  the  black  has.  of  both  sp^i^  ^"^^  '"*"*'   »''"*  "f""*"  greater 

mow  bass,  black  perch,  yellow  perch.  blickTront  „,:«„  f""?  1*  *'^?  ^"^  y«"°''  »»«. 

'Welshman.' when  for  the  use  of  intelli~nt  n^^i     I '"'*"'"»^''*'  »"«'  ''«"«»'   «•">« 
and  in  most  civilized  reiriona  it  i,  ik      *^      P^^P'"  **"  "■»•  '•>'«'k  bass  is  available 
•Dutchman    is  ap^TieSTt ^EnglUh  tlTorT"""^*  '^"P'"'-     ^'"'•l-i  'hTS 
Asam  it  is  diffl.alt'^to  ».e  what  ra£n.l  Z„„d  E  i"  *  ^  ««-r'kill  waters 

trout  to  a  member  of  the  caq,  f.mO^  reSTv  !lh  .h       "^".^  ''""  "PP'^'"*  *»>e  nam. 

«~)thec^i„.hiaRiv.7chub.^6;St'v„;t;^-,':,l%r„t^^^^^ 


19 


«M|ht  •ad  Mll«d  troat  al»«t  univtndljr  Inr  Um  lowl  pMpI*.     It  i.  „Jd  that  thw 

.     »       j^      ^^i^  unjiirtllUbl.  i«  the  onitom  oi  calling  «iioth«r  oyprinoid,  tb* 
•m.11  mud.^nnow.  Vmbrali^  b^  th-  nan.  dog.fl.h—  f  rm  .pP'W  miit  oommonW 
to  o.rUln  .m«lln,eBb.w  of  the  tUrk   tribe,  but  ^  gi^en  to  the  B.,w.fl„  or  Mud«.h 
fl!:i:^l '^""-  il^  ^•*?   f''*   »**"   *'"'   "»«  '"•^y"'.'  •   ri»'inction   which    hS 
irt^iiir"  ""  ""  •"''  ^^'  ^^'"''''^  ""•"  *"  **»•  »'>«'bot  or  frllh- 

A  «ixth  mode  of  naioing  fi.h  to  which  there  i.  every  re«i„n  to  object  ia  that  of 
patting  m  c.roulai.on  »  new  nam.  in  plaoe  of  an  old  and  univernally  kniwn  n,me  for 
•ome  ronipar»uv,.ly  trivial  and  'inMientitio  reaun.  Tl..  nio.t  Hagrant  cam  of  thia  evil 
oour«, .,  found  ,„  the  n...,.  very  often  given  to  the  original  brook  t,t,ut  or  .potted  tmut 

called  Von  ttehr  trout,  a  name  wholly  unknown  in  anv  oth/r  country,  and  wholly  hit 
propria^.  Kven  w  eminent  an  authority  a.  Dr.  Jordan  .peak,  of  Salmo  /ario \m  t£ 
Von  IJehr  or  brown  trout,  neither  of  which  name.  a»  oo.imonly  applied  to  it  in  ao^ 
«.un.ry  in  which  the  fl.h  i.  indigenous.  Mr.  Living.ton  Stone,  in  a  fiper  on  American 
M-h  Guitar*,  two  or  thr«,  year.  ago.  thu.  .poke  of  the  r«««>n  for  Sg  the  common 
brook  trou  of  Kurope  by  the  name  of  a  Oerinan  fi.h  culturist.  and  urge.  .Sme  con.idri^ 
tion.  in  order  Uj  ju-tify  the  policy.     He  nay* :—  »  '  tunaiui-ra- 

'It  W.W  the  writer',  privilege  to  cirry  on  a  delightful  corrwpondenc  with  Herr  von 
Behr  for  «,veral  year.,  ftroppmg  all  o.«  •  fonm  and.  in.leed.  all  formality  whatever, 
hi.  letter,  were  earnent.  conti.lential,  and  -  of  enthusia..,,.  They  expr«.H«|  the  .«me 
ov,.  and  adnuration  for  P.otWsor  Baird  tl  ..  American,  felt  for  him  at  home,  an.l  nev"r 
lacked  lu  .-xpression.  of  hi.  great  admiration  of  An.eric  n  fi.h-culture.  They  al»o  record 
hi.  sad  domestic  Weavement..  and  t<,ld  how,  after  the  |.m«  of  his  three  nons.  he  had 
re-olved  to  devote  the  remainder  of  hi.  life  to  the  cause  of  flsh-.ulture  in  (Jermanv  I 
am  aware  that  much  criticinm  has  Im«:i  .-xpre^^ed  becauw  Von  Jtehr'H  name  ha." been 
given  by  An.encan.  to  a  European  trout  nince  iu  introcluction  into  this  country  •  but 
whatever  nay  1*  *«id  of  the  judinou.ne-,  of  the  act.  no  one  can  deny  that  it  wr. 
fitt..,g  t-om^iiment  to  a  man  who  richly  deserved  the  honour,  nor  can  any  one  deny  that 
It  rertec t.  credit  on  the  kindly  feeling  which  nought  in  tl.i.  way  to  rrco«„ixe  Amcrca, 
.ndel.t,.ln..s»  to  Von  Behr.  and  f.  i^rpctuate  in  America  the  name  of  the  di.t  nguChed 
<«erman  hili-cultuiist.  ""guioncu 

A  parallel  ca«-  .Kicurred  in  Canada.  M.me  year.  ai;,..  when  an  effort  was  mad.-  to 
per|«tuate  the  name  of  a  pioneer  fish  cult u.iHt  of  th..  Dominion  viz.:-the  late  .Mr  S 
>\  ilmot.  I  he  name  Wilmot  s  salmon  was  applied  to  the  salmon  which  formerly  .K;curred 
in  somo  abundance  m  Like  Ontario  ;  but  i>  now  practically  extinct.  '.  he  fish  it  ha^ 
been  agreed,  .hffeml  in  no  structural  re.peci  from  the  *ea  salmon  (SaUo  .alar)  and  th^ 
name  W  ilmot  s  salmon  never  attained  any  .urrency  and  ri-htiv  so.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  records  .show  that  these  I^ke  Ontario  sa,„.on  were  prior  to  the  middle  r.f  the  present 

but  al„  ut  18.,o  It  I,  reported  that  only  a  seamy  re.nnant  existed,  destructive  poaching 
especiully  merciless  slaughter  on  the  sp.wnin.  grounds,  chieHy  small  shallow  creeks  and 
steam,  had  .lecimate.1  them.  In  lt<65.  says  an  otficial  re'port,  the  scanty  remnant 
referred  to  were  snatched  trom  extinction  through  the  efforts  of  the  Fishery  Departn.cnt 
This  remnant  was  afu-rwards  utilized  by  Mr.  Wilmot.  who  conceive.-!  the  idea  of 
restocking  the  stream  by  artificial  reproduction.  His  initial  experiments,  purely  of  an 
individual  character,  were  prosecuted  during  two  years  under  much  out-side  difficult? 
and  at  very  considerable  personal  lal«ur  and  expense.  They  were,  however,  successful 
es  abhshing  the  important  fact  that  salmon  e^rgs  coul.l  be  hatchevl  out.  there  and  the 
young  fish  reared  through  proper  means  and  intelligent  cnre.  Aided  to  a  very  limited 
exten  in  the  following  yean,  by  the  government,  Mr.  Wilmot  persevered  and  he 
wa.  able  to  exhibit  upwards  of  140  000  well  sl.apen,  healthy  and  active  salmon  fry  from 
three-fourths  of  an  inch  to  one  and  a  half  inches  long,  and  fully  capable  of  be^g  f^ 
and  reared  to  that  stage  of  vigour  and  growth  when  naturally  they  w^ld  emigrate  from 
their  native  stream  and  return  as  adolescent  salmon.  It  was  officially  stated  that  these 
fry  were  no  hybnds-no  doubtful  or  inferior  members  of  the  «»lmon  famS-but  ^ 

B.  K.   P.— 2J 


20 

thorough  progeny  of  the  true  salmon  (Sa/mo  mlar)  which  form  «o  valuable  a  product 
t/tv    i^an^   ^^'^''t'"""'-  fl^hingH  in  other  parUi  of  the  Dominion      'TbeKen 
whih     l    '^=«^**'"fl    certamty,'    my^    the    orticial    report,  •  in  spit*  of    a   Houbt 
which  8  known  to  exiHt  ,n  the  mind,  of  n.any  persons,  and  demonstrating  that  the^m- 

STtL  a7e"nt;o„  (>il'r'  ""''r ''"  -^'J-' °^  **«  increased  producLnworth^  of 
h^^nfoMSfifi'  h  •  '  ""■-'•"  'f'l'  ""'■'^^  twoyear-old  salmon,  of  the  experimental 
hatching  of  1866,  having  revisited  the  creek  in  the  fall  of  1868,  are  actual  oroirenito™ 
IC  ?  'he  present  large  hatch  of  salmon  fry.  The  female  gn^set  not  Zwn^ 
propaga  e  on  her  hrst  migration  fiom  sea,  but  the  male  does.  The  few  fuH  grownlL^ 
fish.  M,a  e  and  female,  which  were  last  autumn  accompanied  by  the  larse  ^umW  of 

o^-iTair^hri-nTZgirs"^'^"^ 

atedbl''tl!ruti"virw!i*'''  :^'.'"-'-=^*°  r'-e  tho*,  in  .he  private  esUblishment  inaugur- 
ated  b>  the  lat«  Mr.  W  ihnot,  in  winch  he  carried  on  for  some  years  fish  culture  before 
the  Domunon  government  to.,k  up  the  work,  when  the  buildings  were  tran.sferrwl  t^  the 
Department  ,.f  Marme  and  Fisheries,  ar.d  .i.sl.-hreeding  has  bet^n  carried  ori«re  until 
he  present  tune.  No  doul.t  Ihis  special  effort  on  the  part  of  a  privateTn.Hvidua  «ave 
th.  t  .nd.v.du„|  ,n  the  eves  of  some  j,eopIe,  the  right  to  confer  L  o,^  ia^Vul „  them 
but  the  ,.nnc,ple  is  one  which  has  „o  claim  to  approval  on  «eneral  grounds  aX, ere  is 

IS  one,  II ,  ret  ore,  which  could  not  by  any  means  be  ustified  or  j;ain  currency  That  vf., 
orousan.l  enthusiastic  fish  authority,  the  lat.  Fred  Mather,  exp^ssed  h^Sthu s  clea  f; 
on    Ins  appl.catK.n  o,   personal   names  U>  fish.     ■!  find  frequent  reference'  he   irote^ 

r^ut^'^'u.et'.n'ted'^t.  e1^\r  P^"'«^*  "«-,-'  »'-  — '  that  name  fc!;  the  brrn 
trout ....  the  t  nte<l  htates  t  ish  Commissioner  has  seen  fit  U.  ignore  the  name  brown  trout 
which  , as  the  original  importer,  I  have  the  right  U,  give,   and  has  called  it  'Ton   I^k; 

hl^eVn  "  d"'"""  T  "'"  '"''■:  '"i^'  '^'"^  "«^'»  claii'nedbv  t?.e  in^port^l,/!  foreign  tt 
he.e  u iged  may  he  .,uest,oned  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  so  long  as  the  name  Von  Hehr  tmut 
IS  used  by  fishery  authorities  on  this  western  continent,  their^br^threnTother  lands  wil 
not  know  to  what  fish  they  refer.  Certainly  the  name  will  never  be  recogniS  SopTw^ 
in  any  other  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Quite  a  nun.lier  of  fishfrvlxperts  hl^ 
felt  the  .nap,,r.,prm  eness  which  the  selection  of  an  unknown  name  for  a  well  known 

Chenenhr  T  \"  ^"''"1!""  'L "  '"  '='''""«'^"'  '*"d  intelligibility  and  MA  "" 
Chene.v    thu,s  strongly  pkces  himself    on    record    in    a    recent    is.sue'^'of    For^st^a 

'i-V    years  I  have  inveighed  against  the  use  of  the  terra  German  brown  trout 
because  ,t  was  absolutely  inipro,M,r.      As   well  call  our  native  bio^ktLlCS 

o^Tl^'Tte^narr' Ov'er ''■""?  trout    l^cause  they  happened  to  crrfl^e^iher 
.states  named       Over  and    over  I   have    written  that   the   brown  trout  is    the 

rr:.a"M  T;  "■"  V^  '^"■'r-  ^"  •■"""'"'y  -^  ^  '^*'"«'  •'ns.k  trout  a„d  I.  (  e"  l  ita^^n 
name  e  Z':    .Took?  ?"';"'  "'""^  "iT  '''"'"''''"'  "^  »'"e  Germane;;::;"" 

moT;,   .       1  .  ,        ""•■  "*  ""'■  "*"•   h"t  we  can  call  it  by  its   English   com- 

wounded  in  the  house  of  ,ny  friends,  as  well  assublx-d  in  mv  viZ,  Tt  1  \  7  . 
misbul  ot  the  otlender  from  the  service  of  the  State  ' 

ent,  mtioduoed  into  the  Lmted  atat.,s,  New  Zealand.  South  Africa,  India,  Jtc.  In  Qer- 


ai 


many  the  fish  is  ca  led  Bachfordle  (brook  trout).  Dr.  Day,  in  '  Brituh  and  Irish  Sal- 
n.on.d«,'  persistently  writes  it  down  brook  troit ;  but  a.  I',  have  a  brook  tlt^J  o^r 
own  we  cannot  «lopt  the  translation  of  the  German  name  which  D^y  seems  to  prefer 
In  England  the  fish  w  generally  called  the  common  trout,  although  U  sometiaes'^S 
by  other  naines^  Th.s  ,s  particulariy  true  in  Scotland.  The  name  German  trout  te«me  at 
tached  to  the  European  trout  from  the  fact  that  the  fii^t  egRg  of  this  ^oe^Z^^^Z, 

Tn^bTDr-  :  P-Sh't'''''.^  ^''*rr "  P--^"*"^  ^  the^nlLJstr 'ri;hS.mmS 
n  .^.  f*    •  rr"*!"'  °*  '*'"  '^^^"'""  ri^hf^Tien  Association,  and    were   taken 

f^ZV^K  !*'■'•  "''*"'"/*'  "  P"'*'*  ^"^  ^'•««J"  i"  Massachusetts  had  prevS 

i^.^1  .^T"  *"""«  l^*"  ^«>«>,E°«''"'d-  The  United  States  Fish  Commission.  outS 
courtesy  to  Dr.  von  Behr,  „arae<l  the  fish  von  Behr  trout,  but  in  New  York  Su.e  the 
Fisheries  Game  and  Forest  Commission  adhere  to  the  English  nume  brown  trout  and 
under  th.s  name  it  .s  hatched  and  distributed  in   some  of  the  public  wa^7s  of  the 

Lastly,  there  is  the  methotl,  too  oomn.only  a.lopted,  of  conferring  a  great  variety  of 
names  upon  one  hs  ,  instea,!  of  adhering  to  a  single,  generally  accepled^ame.  Thero 
riay  bc-un  element  of  appropriateness  in  each  of  the  names  as  in  the  term  'smer 
wh  ch  IS  applied  on  many  lakes  in  New  York  State  to  a  lesser  whitefish,  whos"  sSc 
distinctiveness  was  brst  noticed  by  that  able  and  gifted  fishery  expert,  Dr.  H.M.  S^tt 
Dr.  Smith  called  xl  Core.gonuH  osmer.fnrn.i.,  (now  called  Aryyro.omu.  o,.n.rilhr,nis)  the 
Xh  ,1  """' U  '=*:,'°f  .'•^f«'--'«*  ^o  the  smelt-like  character  of  its  e.xternal  appearance 
Both  the  smelt  and  this  les-er  whitefisl.  belong  to  the  same  family  (.V«/„»,„u/<  ana  the 
misnaming.  ,s  certainly  not  so  outrageous  as  calling  the  whitelish  a  Ik.ss  a  pracMee 
on  son,e  waters  in  New  York  State:  the  term  •  Otse^^o  Ba,s  '  being  inos.  uniusS  y 
applied  U,  the  lake  whitefi.h.     The  name  smelt   is  also  given  to  NolropisTloTo^^l 

name  Mullet,  which  really  belongs  to  a  family  having  most  of  the  charactere  of  the 
perch,  VIZ.,  the  M„gd-lo  (applied  likewise  to  the  Sunnullets  or  .»/«//J')  h^s  been 
c.,nterred  m  many  localities  to  momliers  of  the  carp  family,  from  which  they  wholly  differ 
The  nmllets  are  marine  hshes,  though  .some  of  them  come  into  brackish  water  The  chub^ 
sucker  {kr,,ninon  sucetia)  is  called  mullet  in  North  Carolina,  v.hile  in  Ontario  the  JW 
o.^>,«,.  or  large  scaled  suckei^,  are  calle<l  mullets,  e.g.  white  mullet,  J/.  ,«,„///„;„l  • 
bluemullet  l/.,v,,.yo„„«;  jumping  mullet,  J/.  c.nn„,««,  carp  mullet,  m'  arZ  l^ 
simply  mullet,  M.  anre.>lur,.  Tl.ero  is  probably  no  case,  how'ever.  which  for  variety  of 
popular  names  can  excel  that  freshwater  (ia.loid.  Lota  maclosa,  which  rejoices  in  at 
least  fifteen  distinct  names.  It  is  calle.l  the  burbot,  the  fresh-water  ling,  (t oXtiiJuish 
It  from  the  sea  ling),  the  losh  or  loche  in  Quebec  and  Alaska,  the  eel  j«^ut  in  Ste  „ 
Canada  and  some  Eastern  States,  the  dog  fi.sh  in  I^ke  Erie,  the  'chub  eel '  in  .Chawk 
R.ver,  New  York  Sut«;  the  -frosh-water  cusk  '  in  St.  John  Jtiver,  N.iJ;  'th.  K 
and  lawyer  in  Lakes  Ontario  and  Michigan;  the  '  lake  cusk,'  and  '  fresh'water  cod^ 
of  Lake\\i„nip,gf«gee;  the  'maria'  in  Lake  Winnipeg;  the  'methy,by  the  Cree 
Indians,  and  ee  y^^t  'in  many  districts,  and  the  '  mathemeg  '  in  some  western  are^ 
It  >«aU^  called  'spotted  burbot,'  but,  as  Pi„fe,s.sor  Kamsay  Wright  some  years  a«o 
suggested,  the  name  American  burbot  is  at  once  most  distinctive  and  appropriate  and 
shou  d  supplant  all  other  names.  Only  one  species  is  recognized  by  experts,  though  a 
small  species  was  at  one  time  na.ned  and  distinguishes!  as  Lota  ,om,n-eZ,  the  Wr  eel 
polity  Amongst  the  French  Canadians  the  same  lack  of  uniformity  exists  for  M  Mo   tpetit 

LThr'  ;r  .*  ^"  "^T^T'  •'™"'='''^  ^^  ^"^^"""•«*'  aPPe'lent  impiopremont  fe  poCn 
h.^h>che ;  a  Qu.'bec  on  lu.  donne  tant,U  le  nom  de  queue  d'anguillt,  tantot  oelui  de  bar 

„..,>«".  ^''*"i- """"'*"""/  °^*?'"  "^^arding  the  naming  or  misnaming  of  this  fish,  a  cor- 
responding diversity  of  opinion  exists  regarding  its  eclihle  qualities..  At  a  remote  Hud- 
son Bay  post,  in  the  Canadian  North-west,  I  found  that  the  flesh  w.^^  TgaSeS  as 
poisonous,  indeed,  cases  of  poisoning  after  Indians  and  employees  of  the  post  had  eaten 

Th«  I/'™  '""'rr^'  '"'^J'  ^'".r*"'"^  ""^  ^'"'^  «*•«"  'he  dogs  would  noTeatIt 
The  dog3  are  usually  fed  on  the  excellent  whit«fish  and  deehne  bring  put  off  with  inferior 
tare,  and  it  is  a  fact  pointed  out  by  various  explorers  that  the  doys  of  the  North-west 
used  m  the  dog-trams,  refuse  to  ee,t  the  burbot.     I  found,  however,  at  another  Hudson 


'22 


Bay  post,  that  the  fish  was  oftrn  eaten  and  was  regarded  as  most  excellent,  no  ill  e/Tect* 
bavin);  been  noticed.  Belonging  as  it  doen  to  the  cod  family,  it  should  be  an  excellent 
fish  for  the  table,  like  its  near  relatives  the  cod,  haddock  and  bake.  In  one  of  the  lakes 
in  New  York  State,  (Lake  Winnipireogee)  it  is  pronounced  equal  to  the  whitetish  for 
table  use,  and  the  liver  is  generally  considered  a  rare  delicacy. 

Dr.  Hicbardson  {FautM  Borwli  Amtrieana)  is  reconled  to  have  said  that  '  the  flesh 
of  the  frexb-water  cukW  is  finn,  white,  and  of  good  flavour ;  the  liver  and  roe  are  consi- 
dered delicacies,  when  well-bruised  and  mixed  with  a  little  flour,  the  roe  can  be  baked 
into  very  good  biscuits,  used  in  the  fur  cuunirit-s  as  tea  bread.'  Professor  Brown  Ooode 
spoke  of  it  as  a  very  excellent  fisb,  especially  for  boiling,  though  Dr.  T.  H.  Bean  pointed 
out  that  apart  from  the  liver,  the  fiish  is  not  esteemed  in  the  Great  Lake  region  and 
northward,  but  in  the  rivers  of  Montana  the  burbot  is  in  great  favour. 

Perhaps  the  name  '  minnow  is  more  generally  applied,  or  misapplied  than  any 
other  common  popular  term  in  use.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  term  <  minnow, 
may  on  scientific  and  popular  grounds  be  justitiably  applied  to  small  species  of  Pimp- 
hales,  of  which  there  are  at  least  four  kinds,  of  Leuciscus,  twenty-two  species ;  of  Notro- 
pis,  one  hundred  and  three  species  ;  of  Fundulus,  forty-one  species ;  of  Cyprinfdon, 
eleven  species ;  of  Oambusia,  nine  species,  >.:'..l  of  Gastrosteidae  at  least  fourteen 
species  or  varieties,  or  a  total  of  just  over  two  hundred  distinct  varieties  of  small  fishes, 
it  can  be  imagined  how  much  uncertainty  and  confusion  is  bound  to  arise  when  the  name 
minnow  instead  of  being  confined  to  this  somewhat  numerous  group  of  seven  genera,  is 
indiscriminately  applied  to  any  small  fish  if  of  a  minnow-Iik«  appearance,  whether  the 
young  of  a  well-known  large  species,  or  the  adult  of  some  small  species.  Indeed  in  my 
own  experience  I  have  heard  characterized  as  minnows  the  young  of  salmon  (that  is  the 
parr  stage)  of  black  bass,  of  pike,  pike-perch  or  pickerel,  of  whitefish  and  of  many 
other  familiar  kinds  in  immature  and  young  stages. 

More  than  one  word  is  scarcely  called  for  on  the  matter  of  traders'  names  or  com- 
mercial names  for  fish.  Such  names  are  not,  strictly  speaking,  popular  names  at  all,  and  aa 
a  rule  are  confined  to  the  circle  of  traders  which  ha\e  adoptied  them.  They  do  not  mis- 
lead the  public  to  any  great  extent,  though  they  often  vitiate  official  statistical  records, 
except  in  such  coses  as  that  of  the  small  immature  herrings  caught  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy 
and  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  used  chiefly  for  canning  purposes.  These  small  fisb, 
put  up  in  oil  and  other  liquids,  are  sent  into  the  markets  as  sardines.  They  are  not 
true  sardines,  but  fishermen,  dealers  and  local  inhabitants  never  refer  to  them  as 
herring.  The  traps  or  weirs  are  called  sardine  weirs ;  the  nets,  sardine  nets ;  the  fisher- 
men, sardine  tishermen ;  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  get  into  common  use  any  other 
name  than  that  universally  adopted  along  the  shores,  viz.,  sardine.  As  already  pointed 
out,  the  danger  of  such  misnomers  is  that  in  official  reports  and  statistical  returns  the 
information  collected  may  often  be  misleading  unless  special  care  be  taken  to  discrimin- 
ate between  an  erroneous  local  or  trade  name,  and  the  correct  and  distinctive  name 
which  is  in  general  use.  It  is  plain  that  if  it  were  open  to  any  one  at  will  to  use,  say, 
the  term  '  dog '  when  referring  to  the  horse,  and  when  speaking  of  cats  use  the  term 
'  bears,'  no  one  would  know  what  was  meant,  for  not  only  would  confusion  result,  but 
far  worse,  viz.:  the  spreading  of  misleading  and  erroneous  statements.  Yet,  this  is  pre- 
cisely what  has  taken  place  all  over  North  America  in  regard  to  fisb.  Well-known 
names  have  been  misapplied  and  misused,  the  same  name  has  been  given  to  fishes  placed 
by  naturalists  wide  apart,  and  on  the  other  hand  a  variety  of  names,  really  belonging  U> 
diverse  fishes  have  been  applied  to  one  fish. 

As  Dr.  W.  C.  Kendall  has  pointed  out  in  a  paper  on  the  fresh  water  fishes  of 
Wasthington  County,  Maine,  published  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  U.S.  Fish  Commission,  1894, 
vol.  XIV.,  p.  44,  that  local  names  are  as  a  rule  far  from  clear,  and  he  gives  such  apt  illus- 
trations from  the  part  of  Maine  referred  to  that  I  venture  to  quote  the  examples  which 
he  gives  :  '  Local  names,'  he  says,  '  are  always  more  or  less  confusing,  and  they  are  especial 
ly  so  in  many  instances  in  Maine,  where  distinct  species  in  neighboring  localities  are  often 
known  by  the  same  name.  The  name  "  chub  "  is  applied  indiscriminately  to  the  larger 
fishes  of  the  family  Cyf/rinieUr ;  "  young  chubs  "  or  "  shiners  "  to  the  intermediate  sizes, 
and  "  minnies "  to  the  young  Cyprinida  and  to  the  VypritiodorUido!.  The  catfish 
Ameiunu  nebtilonu,  is  known  generally  as  "  hornpout,"  as  also  in  some  places  in  stickle- 


23 


baolu  PygoUnu,  Oa»tro§Uu$,  and  Aptlt«$.  Catottomut  tertt  is  commonly  designated 
as  "  sucker."  SemotUut  bullarU  is  widely  known  as  "  chub  ;"  bat  the  adult  Fundtdui 
hetervditia,  in  places  along  the  coast,  are  likewise  called  "chub,"  and  the  young  of  the 
same  species  "  minny."  ScUvdinui  fontiwdii  is  evenrwhere  recognized  by  the  uimes 
"  trout,"  "  brook  trout,"  and  "  speckled  trout,"  Salvdinus  natnayetuh  is  known  as 
"  togue,"  "  lake  trout,"  or  "  salmon  trout ;"  Salmo  galar  $^>ago  as  landlocked  salmon 
and  "  salmon  trout."  The  brook-trout  when  large,  also  has  sometimes  been  misnamed 
salmon-trout     Salmo  solar  is  commonly  known  as  "  salmon"  or  "sea  salmon."  ' 

If  the  use  of  popular  names  is  to  be  anything  else  than  a  hindrance  and  a  false 
guide,  some  uniform  method  of  popular  nomenclature  will  require  to  be  adopted.  The 
adoption  of  a  cast-iron  rule  of  priority  might,  ^s  in  the  case  of  scientific  nomenclature 
in  ichthyology,  result  in  the  suppression  of  generally  accepted  and  well-known  descrip- 
tive names  and  the  unearthing  of  questionable  treasures  in  the  shape  of  uncouth  and 
unknown  names  from  the  lumber  pile  of  musty  antiquarian  ichthyological  records. 
Noraencijture  should  be  a  help,  not  a  hindrance,  and  its  terms  as  far  as  possible  should 
be  descriptive  and  convey  information  instead,  as  is  too  often  the  case,  of  mystifying 
and  beclor  iing  the  intelligent  student  and  inquirer. 


14 


III. 

ACCLIMATIZATION  OF  FISH.  FRKSHWATER  AND  MARINE. 

BY  PROFESSOR   EDWARD  E.  i^RINCE,  DOMINION  COMMISSIONER  OF 

FISHERIES,  OTTAWA. 

Fishes  are  frequently  divided  into  freshwater  and  salt-water  npeciea.  though  there 
•re  some  kinds,  like  the  salmon,  shad  and  eel,  which  occupy  a  kind  of  neutral  position  • 
and  have  the  habit  of  spendini?  part  of  their  time  in  fresh  water  and  part  in  the  sea 
Those  which  ascend  rivers  for  spawning  purposes,  their  young  hnxnl  descending  at  a 
sutticienily  advanced  age  to  the  ocean,  are  distinguished  as  "anadromous  "  or  "ascend- 
ing specie?,  while  those  which  have  their  habitat  in  fresh  water  lakes  and  rivers  and 
nii„'rat«  to  the  sea  for  spawning  purposes,  are  known  as  "  eatadromous."  But  while 
thrae  distinguishing  names  apply  accurately  enough  on  the  whole,  there  is  abundant 
evidence  that  numerous  species,  which  are  essentially  marine  species  and  neither 
anadronious  nor  eatadromous,  are  able  to  live  in  fresh  water  and  vice  rerm. 

The  iH)wer  of  endurance  which  enables  a  marine  Hsh  to  live  and  grow,  and  even 
reproduce  in  fresh  water,  or  in  bra:kish  waU-r,  is  in  some  species  so  remarkable  as  to 
opten  up  to  the  fish-culturist  possibilities  which  hitherto  have  received  little  or  no  atten- 
tion If  waters  remote  from  the  sea  can  be  stocked  with  fine  species  of  fish,  normally 
inhabiting  salt-water,  the  possibility  of  conferring  immense  benefits  upon  the  public 
becomes  apparent.  The  introduction  o:  new  species  of  fish  into  various  countries,  as  for 
example  the  brook  trout  of  this  country  into  England  has  been  a  great  succe.s8.  Plants 
and  trees  in  the  same  way  have  been  distributed.  I  had  for  many  years  been  impressed 
witfi  the  remarkable  adapUbility  to  new  and  unaccustomed  conditions  of  certain 
^.anadian  fishes  and  it  had  occurred  to  me  that  some  of  the  so-called  alkaline  or  .saline 
•  tfrl!""*^  "S  '■""^"'^•■'''''e  extent-in  the  Nonh-west  Territories,  might  Im  st  .eked 
with  fish  capable  ot  enduring  profound  changes  of  environment.  I  h.id  a  long  conversa- 
tion in  18!»3  with  .Sir  John  Schultz  upon  the  subject,  and  as  a  result.  Sir  John,  at  that 
time  Ueutenant-CJovernor  of  Manitoba,  arranged  for  a  discussion  of  the  matter  with  the 
Kev.  bather  Lacom be.  I  therefore  arranged  a  scheme  for  introducing  certain  species 
of  hshes,  new  to  western  waters,  into  the  barren  and  unpromising  lakes  in  the  west 
Various  circums  tances  interfered  with  the  realization  of  the  plan  which  I  devised  in 
detail :  but  in  1896  an  attempt  was  made,  to  which  I  .-eferred  in  my  report  upon  fish- 
culture  in  that  year  (29th  Am.  Hep.  Dep.  Mar.  and  Fisheries,  1896,  pp.  290  and  291) 
Ihe  frost-hsh  or  tom-cod  on  account  of  it*  hrirdy  nature,  habits  of  spanning  and  excel- 
ence  as  a  table  fish,  appeared  specially  suited  for  transference  to  the  barren  western 
lakes,  where  the  conditions  are  somewhat  unfavourable  to  most  kind."  of  edible  fish 
Few  people  have  any  idea  of  the  i.umber  of  species,  which  can  be  safely  transferred 
from  their  usual  habitat  to  conditions  v,..jlly  different  in  many  respects.  To  the  fish- 
culturist,  whose  work  includes  the  introduction  of  valuable  species,  in  ad.ilt  or  immature 
stages,  into  new  waters,  as  much  as  the  hatching  and  rearing  of  the  usual  kinds, 
the  lai-t  IS  of  profound  importance. 

That  certain  marine  shell-fish  are  able  to  survive  removal  from  their  usual  surround- 

'^^wj"*!  ?  ^"  ^r*"  ,.,^"  *  P*'*'"  ""^  ^''^-  '^>  1825,  to  the  Wernerian  Society 
of  Edinburgh,  Mr.  Henry  Witham  described  a  bed  of  sea-cockles  tCavdium  edule)  m 
existing  m  a  peat  moss  in  Yorkshire  at  a  distance  of  no  !e»s  than  40  miles  from  the  sea. 
The  peat-moss  w««  about  two  miles  from  Greta  bridge,  and  not  many  miles  from  the 
nver  lees.  The  bed  of  cockles,  which  were  living  on  the  sandy  bottom  of  a  channel  or 
drain  passug  through  the  peat-moss,  had  existed  for  a  long  period,  indeed  the  adjacent 


26 


farm  wm  called  Cockletbury  in  allusion  to  the  oconrrenee  of  the  ahell-fiah.  Specimens 
of  the  cookies  were  exhibited  »t  the  nieetiog  of  the  Wernerian  Society,  and  they  diCTered 
in  no  respect  from  those  occurring  on  the  vast  beds  of  the  estuary  of  the  Tees,  excepting 
that  on  tasting  th^ni  they  were  less  distinctly  salt  in  flavour.  Over  a  hundred  years 
earlier  Mr.  John  Brand,  in  his  book  entitled  *A  Brief  Description  of  Orkney,  Zetland, 
Caithness,  &b.'  (Eldinburgb,  1701,)  referred  to  the  occurrence  of  living  cockles  in  the 
fields  more  than  a  mile  from  the  sea.  When  ploughing  the  fields,  cockles  were  turned  up 
in  numbers  and  were  eaten.  Of  this  remarkable  occurrence  Mr.  Brand  wrote  : —  '  How 
these  sliell-ftshes  came  there,  and  should  be  fed  at  sik  li  a  distance  from  their  ordinary 
element,  I  cannot  know,  if  they  have  not  been  cast  upon  land  by  a  violent  storm,  much 
of  the  ground  of  this  parish,  especially  what  they  labour,  lying  very  low,  and  the  sea 
hath  been  observed  in  such  storms  both  to  cast  out  slones  and  fishes ;  or  if  these  cockles 
have  been  found  in  some  deep  furrow,  from  which  to  the  sea  there  hath  been  a  convey- 
ance by  some  small  stream,  \xpoa  which  the  sea  bath  flowed  in  stream  tides,  especially 
when  there  is  also  some  storm  blowing.  If  only  shells  were  found  such  us  oysters  and 
the  like,  the  marvel  would  not  be  great,  seeing  such  are  found  upon  the  tops  of  high 
mountain.s,  at  a  greater  distance  from  the  sea,  which,  in  all  probability,  have  been  there 
since  the  universal  deluge ;  but  that  any  shell-fish  should  be  found  at  some  distance 
from  the  sea,  an'l  fit  for  use,  is  somewhat  wonderful  and  astonishing.'  Hpecimens  of 
the  sea-whelk,  Buceinum  undatitm,  have  been  found  in  Shetland,  living  on  the  margin 
of  a  freshwater  lake  ( on  the  island  of  Yell  )  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  sea.  The 
shells  weie  somewhat  thinner  in  texture  than  those  found  on  the  adjacent  rocky  coast, 
and  their  coloration  differs  markedly,  being  very  distinctly  banded.  Miiriy  showed  the 
tip  fractured,  lending  support  to  the  theory  that  crows  or  water  fowl  had  carried  them 
to  the  locality,  but  that  they  were  found  living  in  fresh  water,  and  according  to  com- 
petent observers  differed  from  the  marine  forms  in  certain  features  seemed  to  show  that 
they  had  long  lived  in  their  new  surroundings.  The  lake  had  an  extremely  small  outlet 
emptying  by  a  minute  rivulet  into  the  sea,  and  it  was  practically  unafleoted  by  the 
tides.  The  well  known  Scottish  geologist,  the  lute  Dr.  John  MacCulloch,  .suggested  to  ■  ' 
resident  on  the  Isle  of  Guernsey,  viz.,  Mr.  Arnold,  that  experiments,  in  the  acclimatiz- 
ation of  many  species  of  marine  animals,  might  be  tried  in  a  closed  -wnd  about  four 
acres  in  extent,  and  separated  from  the  sea  only  by  an  embankment.  The  inflow  of 
fresh  water  (non-saline  that  is  to  say)  was  very  deficient  'n  summer,  but  abundant  in 
winter,  hence  it  was  nearly  fresh  in  winter,  very  salt  in  summer  anil  brackish  in  varying 
degrees  at  intermediate  periods.  The  experiment  which  was  tried,  was  not  therefore 
conclusive  in  establishing  the  permanence  » f  the  adaptiliility  of  the  creatures  tested,  to 
freshwater  condition.s,  yet  a  variety  of  sea  fishes  as  well  as  crabs,  shrimps,  oysters,  and 
mussels,  survived  in  health  and  vitality.  The  test  was,  however,  not  decisive  as  to  the 
possibility  of  keeping  these  creatures  alive  at  a  distance  from  the  sea  and  in  water  which 
was  invariably  fresh.  That  oysters  can  endure  transference  to  water,  not  merely  brack- 
ish but  almost  destitute  of  salinity,  has  been  demonstrated.  They  do  not  breed  under 
such  conditions,  nor  do  they  maintain  a  fully  healthy  state,  thoufjli  they  may  fatten  and 
increase  in  size. 

From  an  economic  standpoint  the  acclimatization  in  fresh  water  of  fishes  wholly  or 
partially  murine  is,  however,  of  prime  importance.  Th»t  a  lish,  like  the  salmon,  which 
habitually  spends  much  of  its  life  distant  from  the  sea,  should  either  naturally  or  under 
circumstances  artificially  devised,  take  to  a  purely  fresh  water  existence  is  not  surprisins. 
The  ouananiohe  or  land-locked-salmon  of  eastern  Canadian  waters  is  a  familiar  ex- 
ample. No  doubt  the  land-locked  species  of  salmon  found  in  certain  lakes  in  M:iine, 
U,  S.  A.,  and  in  Chamcook  and  other  lakes  in  New  Brunswick,  has  acquired  the 
habit  of  remaining  permanently  in  fresh  water,  owing,  as  i->  the  case  also  of  Lsko  St. 
John  in  Quebec,  to  certain  physical  difficulties  which  may  have  at  one  time  existed  in 
the  way  of  admitting  free  migration  to  and  from  tiie  sea.  The  experiment  has  been 
tried  of  retaining  the  fry  of  sea-salmon  in  fresh  water  ponds  and  lakes  with  a  view  of 
originating  a  non-seagoing  variety,  but  with  no  satisfactory  success,  so  far  as  has  been 
demonstr;  ted.  '  Perhaps  the  earliest  attempt,  at  any  rate,  one  of  the  earliest  attempts 
artificially  to  raise  a  land-locked  variety  of  the  sea  salmon  was  that  made  in  Lier,  in  the 
south  of  Norway.  A  quantity  of  salmoc.  fry  were  in  the  year  1857  put  in  a  small  fresh 


90 

w*ter  pond.  Their  growth  wm  fonnd  to  be  ilow,  for  after  m  period  of  five  jeara,  ther  had 
only  Atuined  a  weight  of  1|  Iba  :  less  than  one  tenth  the  weight  normally  reached  by  the 
migratory  salmon  In  the  same  year  2,000  salmon  and  sea-trout  fry  were  placed  in  two 
lakcH  in  Luardal,  Lower  Thelemarken,  and  the  experiment  proved  somewhat  more  satis- 
factory than  the  initial  attempt  at  Lier.  In  1862  rame  of  the  salmon  were  found  to 
weigh  3}  to  5  lbs.  each, while  the  sea-trout  averaged  half  that  weight.  At  a  later  date 
an  experiment  near  Throndhjem,  and  another  near  Cbristiania  resulted  in  salnjon  weigh- 
ing frt-m  2J  to  8  and  9  lbs.  While  the  experimenters  found  that  growth  is  more 
Urd  y  than  u  the  cote  with  those  having  access  to  the  salt  water,  yet  the  maximum  growth 
seems  to  be  largely  influenced  by  the  size  of  the  waters.  The  larijer  the  lake  the  speedier 
tlieir  growth.  In  small  ponds  the  experiment  proved  no  very  marked  success. 
Even  in  large  inland  seas,  like  Lake  Huron,  the  late  .Mr.  8.  Wilmot  sUted  that  he  found 
them  somewhat  stunted.  '  I  took  the  eggs  of  Salmo  mlar,  impregnated  them,  hatched 
them  and  took  them  up  into  the  rivers  running  into  Lake  Huron,'  said  Mr.  Wilmot  in 
1883,  and  to  day  some  of  the  true  Salmo  saiar  are  found  in  Lake  Huron,  though  smaller 
than  those  found  along  the  coast.'  The  Lake  Wernem  salmon  in  Norway  are  said  in 
sizH  and  every  other  feature  lo  etjual  if  not  rival  the  sea-salmon  (see  Day,  Brituh  Sal- 
mouuifr,  p.  104.)  Sir  James  Maitland  in  Mar.,  1881,  hatched  fry  from  the  eggs  of  sea- 
salmon,  and  kept  some  of  the  brood  until  1884  when  he  took  eggs  and  milt  from  them 
and  m  Mar.,  1885,  produced  young  salmon  from  small  parent  fish  (smolu)  which  had 
never  been  to  the  sea.  In  1886  some  of  these  young  fish  were  5i  in.  long  as  Dr.  Day 
has  recordetl.  ' 

Apart  from  the  influence  of  the  water,  its  salinity  and  chemical  character,  there  are 
other  conditions  which  must  also  be  taken  into  account.  The  area,  depth  and  geolo- 
gical character,  and  above  all  the  fauna  have  a  potent  influence.  The  last  is  but 
another  name  for  the  food-supply,  and  of  the  influence  of  that,  Mr.  J.  Harvie-Brown  of 
Dunipace  (Scotland),  has  given  to  the  scientific  world  a  remarkable  instance.  Mr. 
Brown  says : — 

I  "  I  put  a  J  lb  trout,  along  with  others,  into  a  previously  barren  loch,  in  two  years 

some  of  these  trout  attained  to  4  J  lb.  weight,  developed  huge  fins  and  square  or  rounded 
taiK  loot  all  spots,  took  on  a  coat  of  dark  slime,  grew  huge  teeth,  and  became >roce« 
in  that  short  time.  The  common  burn  trout,  taken  from  a  very  high  rocky  burn  up  in 
the  hills,  in  two  years  became  indistinguishable  from  Stdmo/erox.  The  first  year  they 
grew  U>  about  I  II..  or  \\  lb.,  took  on  a  bright  silvery  sheen  of  scales,  were  deep  and 
high  shouldered,  lusty  and  powerful,  more  resembling  Lochleven  trout  than  any  others. 
This  was  when  their  feeding  and  condition  were  at  ti.eir  best ;  but  as  food  decreased,  and 
they  rapidly  increased  in  number,  spawning  in  innumerable  quantities,  and  with  no 
enemies,  the  larger  tish  began  to  prey  on  the  smaller,  grew  big  teeth,  swam  deep  and 
lost  colour,  grew  large  fins  and  a  big  head,  and  became  Salvw  ftrox  so-called.  In  two 
years  more  the  food  supply  became  exhausted,  and  now  the  chain  of  lochs  holds  nothing 
but  huge,  lanky,  kelty-looking  fish  and  swarms  of  diminutive  '  black  nebs,'  neither  of 
the  sorts  de-erving  of  the  anglers  notice.  The  first  year  they  were  splendid  fish— rich 
and  fat.     Now  they  are  dry  and  tasteless." 

Dr.  Barfurth  ascertained  that  when  migratory  fish  ascend  into  fresh  water  and  find 
no  suitable  spawning  ground  they  refuse  to  shed  their  ova,  and  an  anatomical  examina- 
tion showed  that  ovarian  disease  had  resulted,  and  the  eggs  had  degenerated.  Certain 
marine  tish,  for  example,  flounders,  have  been  noticed  iu  an  egg-bound  condition,  due  to 
some  physiological  cause,  and  the  specimens  were  found  to  grow  sick  and  ultimately 
they  died.  Dr.  Barfurth  reported  that  in  the  case  of  trout,  which  were  prevented  from 
spawning,  the  ovaries  not  only  became  diseased,  but  the  eggs  and  brood  of  the  same  tish 
in  the  following  season  were  very  inferior,  and  had  been  aflTected  detrimentally.  It  was 
this  lonsiderstion  which  compelled  me  to  withhold  approval  of  the  plan,  inaugurated  in 
Canada  by  the  lata  Mr.  8.  Wilmot,  of  retaining  parent  salmon  in  sea-water  ponds  long 
after  they  should  naturally  have  reached  the  upper  waters,  where  the  spawning  beds  are 
locatwl.  In  mmt  cases  the  land-locked  salmon,  those  that  is  to  say  which  became  land- 
locked naturally,  can  descend  to  the  sea.  There  is  no  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  their  descent  to  the  ocean.  The-  ouananiche  of  Lake  St.  John,  in  the  province  of 
Quebec,  are  occasionally  found  in  the  Saguenay  river,  far  below  the  Grande  D^harge, 


97 


And  the  variety  of  Halmon,  evidently  a  land-locked  variety,  similar  to  the  onananidie, 
and  found  in  Crand  Lake,  L»ke  Onawa,  and  the  head  waters  generally  of  the  St.  Croix 
river,  on  the  borderland  of  New  Brunswick  and  the  sta'e  of  Maine,  can  also  readily 
deeoend  to  the  oea,  if  they  d«sire  U»  do  so.  The  famous  fish-culturist,  Mr.  Charles  O. 
Atkins,  once  said  of  the  land-locked  saluion  in  Maine,  U.S.A.,  '  it  is  likely  that  it  haa 
■ometini>-s  occurred  to  stray  individuals  to  rtencend  the  St.  Croix  river,  or  the  Presump- 
scot  to  the  sea.'  The  catadrouiuuit  habit  however,  seems  to  have  been  lost,  larf(ely,  no 
doubt,  owin;;  to  the  abundance  of  food,  especially  tne  dainty  land-locked  smelt,  which  is 
plentiful  ill  moHt  lake.-*  inhabited  by  noumigratory  salmon.  Specimens  which  do  descend 
such  H  river  as  the  Sa^uenay  cannot  readily  return,  but  this  difficulty  of  return  does  not 
apply  to  knd-li>cked  salmon  waters  generally.  It  is  possible,  as  already  indicated,  that 
the  non-seagoiniE  habit  was  assumed  when  the  physiographic  conditions  were  different. 
A  slight  geological  elevation  or  subsidence  in  the  St.  Croix  river  basin  would  very 
much  alter  the  means  of  acce.<<s  to  the  sea  from  inland  lakes,  and  some  such  changes  may 
have  bt-en  effected,  while  we  know  that  the  basin  of  the  Saguenay  is  gfologically  a  most 
remarkable  one.  The  late  Mr.  Wilmot  spoke  on  this  matter  in  London,  in  1883,  and  re- 
marked : — It  might  be  said,  how  could  the  salmon  in  Lake  Ontario  be  said  to  be 
land' locked  when  the  St.  I.awrence  emptied  that  lake  into  tfac!<ea  ?  Salmon  were  feeders 
in  the  sea  and  breeders  in  fresh-water  ;  they  migrated  annually  to  the  rivers  to  repro- 
duce. When  they  were  abundant  in  the  waters  of  the  gulf,  they  passed  up  the  St.  Law- 
rence, entering  every  stream  on  either  side  up  into  Lake  Ontario  ;  and  were  it  not  for 
the  great  barrier  of  Niagara  Kalis  the  xalmon  would  be  found  in  the  upper  springs  of 
Lake  Superior.  It  was  their  instinct  to  go  onward  and  onward  until  they  found  a  suit- 
able spot  for  spawning,  and  they  would  have  pwsed  into  Lake  Erie  and  Lake  .Superior, 
the  same  as  Lake  Ontario,  were  it  not  for  the  falls  ;  the  consequence  was  they  entered 
into  the  smaller  streams  which  fed  the  lake  and  went  buck  into  Lake  Ontario  instead  of 
into  the  sea,  where  they  had  remained  up  to  the  present  time,  as  the  true  sea-salmon 
only  acclimatized  to  fresh-water. 

It  appears  to  be  wholly  different  with  the  large  Pacific  salmon,  known  as  the  spring 
salmon  or  quinnat  (Oncorhynchus  quinnat).  The  California  State  Fisheries  Commis- 
iioncrs,  in  their  report  1876-77,  quoted  in  the  report  of  the  U.S.  Commissioner  of 
Fisheries,  l.s78  (Washington.,  i88C>,  state  of  this  fish  that  it  readily  adapts  itself  to  a 
life  in  fresh  water,  and  reproduces  its  kind  where  it  has  no  opportunity  to  go  to  the 
ocean.  When  the  dams  were  constructed  on  the  small  streams  that  go  to  make  the 
reservoirs  of  San  Andreas  and  Pillarcitos — which  supply  the  ciiy  of  San  Francisco  with 
water — as  also  when  the  <lam  was  constructed  on  the  San  Leandro,  to  supply  the  city 
of  Oakland,  the  young  of  the  salmon  that  had  spawned  the  year  previous  to  the  erection 
of  these  dams  remained  in  the  reservoirs  and  grew  to  weigh,  fre()uently,  a-s  much  as  ten 
pounds  ;  these  reproduced  until  the  reservoirs  have  been  stocked.  As  the  supply  of 
fish  increased  the  quantities  of  food  lessened,  so  that  the  salmon  have  gradually  decreased 
in  weight  until  now,  after  nine  years,  they  do  not  average  more  than  two  pounds. 
From  the  fact  that,  when  food  was  in  abundance,  they  grew  to  weigh  from  eight  to 
twelve  pounds,  and  that,  as  they  increased  in  numbers,  they  averaged  lei's  in  size,  but 
still  continued  to  spawn  and  produce  young  fish,  it  would  seem  that  the  Sacramento 
salmon  may  be  successfully  introduced  into  large  lakes  in  the  interior  of  the  continent, 
where,  in  consequence  of  dams  or  other  obstructions,  they  would  be  prevented  from 
reaching  the  ocean.  The  history  of  this  fish  in  these  small  reservoirs  shows  that  all 
that  is  requisite  for  their  successful  increase  is  the  abundant  supply  of  food,  to  be  '"und 
in  large  bodies  of  fresh  water.  Salmon,  fully  mature,  weighirg  two  pounds,  and  tilled 
with  ripe  eggs,  were  taken,  in  September,  1877,  in  the  waters  of  San  T^eandro  reservoir. 
These  fish  were  hatched  in  the  stream  which  supplies  the  reservoir,  and  by  no  possibility 
have  ever  been  to  the  ocean.  The  San  Leandro  is  a  coast  stream,  not  exceeding  fifteen 
miles  in  length,  and  empties  into  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  It  contains  water  in  the 
winter  and  spring,  at  which  time,  befcre  the  reservoir  was  constructed,  the  salmon 
■ought  its  sources  for  the  purpose  of  spawning.  There  was  never  sutUcient  water  in  the 
months  of  August  or  September  to  permit  the  fish  to  reach  their  spawning  grounds. 
After  the  construction  of  the  reservoir,  large  numbers  of  the  salmon  that  came  in  from 
the  ocean  in  January  and  February  were  caught  at  the  foot  of  the  dam  and  transported 


38 


•live  and  placed  in  the  raeervoir  above.  The  daMendenU  of  theie  fbh  thoa  deUinpd  in 
freeh  water  and  not  permitted  to  ro  to  the  ocean,  have  ao  far  modified  the  habiu  of 
their  anoeatora  that  they  now  spawn  in  September,  inatead  of  in  Januarv  and  Febmary 
Inaamooh  ai  theae-Aah  spawn  in  the  MoCloud,  in  the  headwaten  of  the  Saoramento! 
and  at  the  sources  of  the  San  Joaquin,  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  in  September,  and  in 
short  coast  range  rivers  in  Jauuary  and  Febru*ry,  and  as,  when  changed  to  other 
waters,  their  eggs  ripen  at  a  time  when  the  conditions  of  their  new  homes  are  most 
'v*°"r*''!*  "'■  reproduction,  they  show  a  plastic  adnptebility,  looking  to  their  future 
dutnbution,  of  much  practical,  as  well  as  scientiflc,  importance. 

ThU  large  Pacific  salmon,  unlike  the  true  or  Atlantic  saJmon,  can  endure  a  very 
high  temperature— indeed  it  is  stated  to  ascend  rivers  in  Califoinia,  the  water  in  which 
IS  no  less  than  70°  F.  The  colder  waters  of  the  eastern  sea-board  would  indeed  appear 
to  be  less  favourable,  as  there  in  no  clear  evidence  that  any  adequate  n-sulU,  indeed  any 
results  at  all  have  followed  the  planting  of  quinnat  salmon  in  the  waters  of  Ontario 
and  the  maritime  provinces.  The  retention  of  young  salmon  in  restricted  waters  such 
as  Parkers  Lake  near  Campbellton,  X.B..  in  the  Restigouche  basin,  and  at  the  pond 
clMe  by  the  salmon  hatchery  at  Tadoussac,  P.Q ,  has  not  had  satisfactory  resulu.  The 
fish  seem  dwarfed  and  never  reach  more  than  a  third  of  their  usual  growth,  while  there 
19  no  evidence  that  they  breed  at  all.  The  species  of  Clupeoid  found  in  Lake  Ontario 
and  erroneously  called  shad,  though  it  i»  really  not  distinguishable  except  in  size  from 
the  (.aspeieau  or  Alewife,  which  migrates  up  rivers  from  the  sea  in  the  maritime  pro- 
yjneeH,  is  supposed  not  to  be  native  to  the  interior  wnters.  If  artificially  introduced  it 
is  now  thoroughly  established  and  has  become  ex  treraelv  abundant.  It  is  said  to  spawn 
in  Hprin«  in  inshore  shall.  nv»,  and  vast  schools  of  theiii  'die  and  are  strande-l  on  the  lake 
shore,  causing  great  annoyance  to  the  resiaonts.  The-  accumulate  in  some  seasons  in 
decay.ng  masses,  fouling  the  water  ami  polluting  the  air.  It  has  been  ai,;ued  that  this 
extraordinary  mortality  is  due  to  the  difficulty  of  readily  descending  to  the  sea,  which 
the  Gaspeieau  along  the  sea-coasts  can  easily  accomplish.  Probably  that  is  not  the 
explanation  of  the  fatal  epidemic  which  occurs  every  summer.  Of  a  great  variety  of 
fashes  It  cannot  be  s:ii<l  that  change  of  habitat  from  salt  to  fresh  water,  or  vice  versa, 
has  had  any  such  serious  effects  >is  that  just  detailed.  Many  species  voluntarily  appear 
to  make  the  elmnse  and  suffer  no  appaient  inconvenience,  others  have  found  themselves 
involuntarily  in  their  new  environment,  and  become  thoroughly  acclimatised,  while 
others  have  In^n  transferred  artificially  by  man,  and  havn  flourished  under  the  change. 

There  is  no  well  established  case  of  a  marine  species  of  shark  or  dogfish  taking  per- 
?!fd-^"  V  '"  fresh-water,  except  one  instance  recorded  in  the  Amxrican  Angler,  March, 
k-  /v/o  ¥*'■"•  P:*^""*  Among  the  strange  things  told  us  (savs  the  narrator)  was 
his  (Mr.  Kroders)  chance  meeting  with  a  live  saltwater  dogfi.-h,  about  fifteen  hundred 
miles  from  its  natural  habitat-the  ocean  and  its  estuaries -and  the  writer  quotes 
Mr.  Broder  as  saying:  I  saw  and  handled  this  dogfish  in  1881,  near  the  headwaters 
of  the  Bruno  river,  in  Elko  county,  Nevada,  about  twelve  miles  from  Mountain  City,  a 
mining  cimp.  I  was  accompanied  at  the  time  by  ten  vaqueras  (cowboys)  and  a  Mexi- 
can named  \  la.  These  men  were  working  for  Mr.  Dan  Murphy,  who  at  that  time  was 
ratetl  as  the  largest  land  owner  in  the  world,  as  he  owned  about  two  million  acres  in 
Mexico  and  a  like  amount  west  of  the  Rooky  Mountains.  One  of  the  vaqueros  brought 
the  dogfish  to  me,  It  having  been  nearly  killed  by  one  of  the  train  wagons  when  crossing 
a  small  stream.  I  think  the  fish  was  following  the  salmon  from  the  Pacific  Ocean  up 
the  Bruno  river,  a  distance  of  at  least  1,500  miles. 

Sharks  are  known  to  ascend  the  Amazon  and  other  great  rivers  to  considerable  dis 
tances,  but  not  beyond  the  influence  of  salt  water,  while  there  is  a  saw-fish  {/'rutu  per- 
onelHi)m  the  Senegal  river,  and  some  South  American  and  Indian  species  of  Electric 
V^ys  (Torpedo,  Aarctiie,  ,i-c.),  which  are  purely  fresh  water  in  habitat.  A  shark 
(Carc/«.ri<M^anye<i<;7t«)  frequents  the  Ganges  and  is  found  nearly  :;  >0  mi  lee  from  the 
ocean.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  m«,ntioned  that  of  the  order  nt  whales  alw  three 
are  resident's  in  fresh  water,  viz.:  the  small  Platanuta  yangetica,  which  lives  in  the 
Oanges,  and  Irna  and  Pontoporia,  found  in  the  Amazon  and  South  American  rivers, 
and  belonjfiog  to  the  (Jrampus  and  Porpoise  family.     The  Beluga,  or  large  white  whale, 


39 


Moends  th«  St.  L»wrenc«  river  in  ooniiderable  sobooli  for  nMrljr  •  huDdred  Mid  fifty 
mile*  from  the  open  im,  paining,  indeed,  up  the  Haguenay  river  for  (ome  diitanoe. 

The  Hmall  gadoid,  Mierogadut  tomeod,  Walbauin,  the  toui-ood  or  froiit-flah,  a  valu- 
abU  little  food  tish,  which  vMriea  from  4  to  12  inches  in  length,  in  capable  of  enduring 
great  ohangen  in  regurd  to  the  Halinity  of  the  water  in  which  it  lives.  It  ranges  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  of  thin  continent  from  Labrador  to  Virginia,  and  is  in  great  request  for 
the  Ubie  wherever  it  is  found.  Though  mo  dwarfed  it  in  a  true  coil  in  all  the  usual 
external  characteristics,  and  in  its  excellence  for  table  uwe.  Occurring  as  it  does 
to  so  large  an  extent  in  braclciHh  water,  especially  iu  harboum  and  about  piers  and 
wharfs,  it  is  found  to  make  its  way  up  rivers  as  far  as  the  liniiU  where  the  water  is 
essentially  frenh.  Its  artiflcial  retention  in  fresh  water  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
attempte<l,  nor  are  there  records  of  Much  being  aceomplished,  as  then"  are  in  the  ease  of 
the  smelt,  the  Mea-herring,  striped  liass,  Ac.  The  field  open  to  the  fish  eulturist  in 
regard  to  the  iicclinmtization  of  Mpecies  of  finheM,  usually  regarded  as  marine,  is  a  wide 
and  promising  one.  But  much  information  will  be  """essary  before  any  successful 
attempts  in  this  direction  can  be  carried  on  upon  au  .tonsive  scale.  We  know  how 
species  vary  in  their  powers  of  endurance,  so  that  it  is  impossible  exc»'p>  by  exp'jriinent 
to  presuKe  the  tenacity  of  life  which  a  particular  species  may  jKissess.  Thorenu  has  said 
of  the  catAsh  or  common  bullhead,  Ameiunts  whuloHun,  that  Hpeciinens  are  (miy  killed 
with  extreme  difficulty,  for  they  have  been  observed  o|iening  and  shutting  their 
mouths  for  half  an  hour  after  their  heads  have  been  cut  otf. 

Professor  Jordan's  studies  of  the  fishes  in  the  waters  of  Yellowstone  Park,  state  of 
Wyoming,  have  yielded  some  quite  unexpected  results.  The  alkaline  character  of  the 
waters,  the  calcareous  and  (-iliceouH  matters  which  so  strongly  impre;;nate  the  f  onds, 
geyser  basins  and  outlets,  and  the  streams  and  lakes  in  that  remarkable  region  of  hot 
springs  dovjs  not  seem  to  be  fatal  to  fish  life,  nor  is  the  high  teiiip«iature  seriously 
detrimental  in  »  gn-at  many  coses.  In  Yellowstone  Lake,  trout  are  especially  abundant. 
Dr.  Jordan  reports  about  the  hot  overflow  from  Lake  Oeyser  Wasiii.  The  hot  water 
flows  for  a  time  on  the  surface,  and  trout  may  bo  taken  immediately  under  these  currents. 
Trout  have  been  known  to  rise  through  a  scalding  hot  surface  current.  They  also  linger 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  ho  springs  in  the  bottom  of  the  lake,  and  the  fact  is  evident 
that  geyser  water  does  not  kill  trout.  ,In  Heart  Luke,  trout  are  most  plentiful  about 
the  mouth  of  the  Wnrm  Witch  Creek.  Suckers  and  chuhs  (L-ucixcnH  aliariim)  ascend 
this  creek  for  some  distance,  although  half  its  water  comes  from  jjeysers  and  hot  springs. 
The  chubs  are  found  in  water  in  which  the  temperntureis  about  Hi)'  F.  Dr.  Jordan  has 
published  many  interesting  di'Dails,  and  I  (juote  the  followinf,' : —  The  Hot  River,  which 
drains  the  Mammoth  Hot  Springs,  flows  into  (Jardiner  Hiver.  Trout  alwund  about  the 
mouth  of  this  Ktreom,  and  here,  as  in  numerous  other  places  in  the  Park,  the  conven- 
tional trick  of  catching  a  trout  in  cold,  and  scalding  it  in  hot  water,  is  possible.  Below 
the  mouth  of  this  Hot  River  young  suckers  (('a/m/omnn  yrueim)  were  found  in  ii  tem- 
perature of  about  88,  ond  younj;  trout  in  a  tempt-rature  of  atiout  7.')  .  The  small 
.Miller's  Thumbs  abound  in  the  Gibbon  River  about  the  hot  springs.  Three  were 
found  Ijoiled  in  the  edge  of  the  river  below  Elk  Park,  at  the  m.  ith  of  a  hot  tributary. 
The  volume  of  hot  water  poured  into  any  river  is  greatest  in  tut  Firehole,  Ih-Iow  the 
upper  Geyser  Basin.  The  stream,  however,  is  hardly  warm,  and  the  water  has  little 
mineral  taste,  though  the  abundant  vegetation  trives  it  soniethin<;  of  the  flavonr  of  stewed 
plants.  Even  this  stream,  it  »  ould  seem,  is  probably  not  so  hot  nor  so  heavily  charged 
with  mineral  substance  as  to  be  unfit  for  trout  Its  waters  constitute  a  very  dilute 
alkaline  siliceous  solution.  ♦  ♦  ♦  *  There  are,  however,  numerous  springs  in 
the  Park  which  discharge  sulphurous  liquids  (some  of  them  the  black  ammoniac 
sulphide,  being  very  offensive  in  odour  and  doubtless  fatal  to  fishes.)  Most  of  these 
springs  have  but  a  very  slight  discharge,  and  so  exert  no  appreciable  influence  on  the 
streams.  The  up|>er  js^rt  of  Obsidian  Creek  between  Twin  Lakes  and  Beaver  I.rfike  is 
the  only  running  stream  noticed  as  likely  to  prove  uninhabitable  by  fishes. 

Professor  Jordan  found  the  red  horse  sucker  (Catostomus  ardena)  abundant  in 
the  warm  waters  of  Witch  Creek,  while  the  diminutive  Agosia  niibila  was  found  in  the 
same  heated  location.  The  Utah  chub  {Leuciaois  atrariug)  ascends  the  same  creek 
in  great  numbers,  going  up  further  than  any  other  fishes  and  being  found  in  water  no 


30 


leM  thM)  88*  P.  Th»i» ojrprinokla  ud  trout  (th«  red'hroAt  or  Rocky  MoonUin  tftmt) 
•ndure  oonditiong  of  t«Bper*ture  and  oheoiioul  impuritjr  of  water  under  which  it  would  at 
flnt  sight  he  regarded  aa  imprubable  not  to  My  impoMiible,  for  them  to  aurvive.  W* 
know  that  the  fr«M<h  water  aprcien  of  trout  can  all  at  will  Uke  to  a  Mawater  habitat 
and,  a*  in  New  Zealand,  becuoie  ho  vaatly  chansjrd  that  a  apecialist  would  hardly  reco- 
gnize the  transformed  finh  as  belonging  to  familiar  speciea,  yet  the  young  salmon  and 
the  young  trout  cannot  for  mure  than  a  few  second*)  endure  salt  whUt.  Indeed  in  the 
young  larval  stages  they  die  very  soon  after  transference  to  ►alt  water— the  physical 
nature  of  the  yolk  sack  becomeM  m>  seriously  altered.  The  whole  subject  is  not  only  one 
of  great  biological  and  physiological  interest,  it  is  also  of  imuiense  practical  iinporUnco.  If 
the  cyprinoids,  the  saliiionuids,  and  the  gadoids,  can  furnish  exampl(>s  of  thii  transforma- 
tion of  habitat— the  exchange  of  a  fresh  water  life  for  life  in  salt  water,  there  is  every 
reason  to  think  that  a  much  larger  range  of  genera  will  be  fouptl  U>  poueso  powers  of 
endurance  no  Ichs  remarkable. 

The  Bria  d'Or  Lakes  in  Cape  Breton  as  is  well  known  are  peculiar  inclosed  lakes 
of  sea  water,  or  rather  of  water  whose  salinity  is  markedly  less  than  that  of  the  sea 
outside.  Lobsters,  cod,  and  other  vaii'able  marine  creature*,  are  found  in  these  waters, 
but  not  in  any  great  abundance.  The  lulwters  are  said  to  be  of  large  dimensions,  but 
by  no  raenns  so  numerous  as  along  the  shores  washed  by  the  oc«>8n.  Coi  of  very  large 
size  too  are  captured,  some  56  and  58  lb*,  weight  having  l)een  taken  in  Little  Brasd'Ur 
Lake  ;  but  it  has  been  remarked  that  the  head  in  these  specimens  is  dispro(>ortionately 
larxe,  as  though  they  were  not  so  well  fed  as  their  congenen*  in  the  o|>en  sea.  Cod  indeed 
occur  in  all  parts  of  the  extensive  Bra.s  d'Or  waters,  numbers  lieing  taken  with  hook  and 
line  through  the  ice  at  Whycocomajjh  which  is  at  least  50  miles  from  the  sea  coast  (to  the 
north  east),  and  L'.'j  miles  from  the  coast  (on  the  south-east)  of  Ciipe  Breton  Island,  and 
the  water  in  some  places  is  utmost  fresh. 

Only  one  or  two  members  of  the  co<l  family  (Gadidn)  aie,  howe\er,  known  to  l)e 
truly  fresh  water  species.  All  the  rest  are  marint-.  The  fresK  water  codfish  known  as 
the  cu*k,  burbot,  ling  and  eel  pout,  and  by  many  other  names,  is  a  typical  (iodoid 
8om.-wliat  resembling  the  sea  lin«  Mn/va  molva,  and  ranges  from  2J  lbs.  to  10  lbs.  or  12 
lbs.  thoujjh  in  extreme  north  western  lakes  it  \h  recorded  at  60  ll»s.  or  60  lbs.  weight 
An  allied  form  belonging  to  the  hake  family  (Si'.rliieeiiOr)  has  been  found  to  forsake  the 
salt  water,  and  in  wintei  at  any  rate  resort  in  eimsiderable  numl>ers  to  freshwater.  An 
instance  of  this  is  atfordwl  by  Darling's  Lake,  near  Rotliesiiy,  New  Brunswick.  In  this 
liike,  which  communicates  with  the  Kennebeccasis  River,  a  considerable  branch  of  the 
Kiver  St.  .John,  large  numbers  of  silver  hnke^Merlneciiu  bilinmrk,  Mitchill)  are  caught 
on  hook  and  line  through  the  ice.  This  lieing  ii  salt  water  fish,  its  presence  in  the 
waters  of  Darling's  Ijike  is  explained  by  its  habit  of  following  the  shoaU  of  gaspe- 
reaiix  or  alewivcs  when  they  ascend  in  spring  from  the  sea.  The  true  cfsi  (findi'M  mor- 
r/ina)  is  fount!  in  moderate  abundance  in  the  Baltic  Sea,  the  waters  of  which  are  of  low 
salinity  especially  in  the  \mya  and  inlets  along  the  shores.  Other  menil«rs  of  the 
family  (iu'lifli^  occur  there  such  as  the  haddock,  the  ling,  the  whiting,  the  pollock  and 
the  ;rroen  coil  ;  but  none  are  so  numerous  as  tli.-  true  cod.  As  might  be  surmised,  the 
cod  d(«-s  not  reach  the  size  whi.  h  it  attains  in  the  open  sea,  rarely  exceeding  12  or  15 
poutids,  whereas  in  the  sjilt  water  out.side  it  reaches  a  weight  of  .">0  or  60  lbs.  ♦  The 
specimens  indeed  Income  more  stunted  the  further  one  goes  up  the  Baltic,  in  the  Sound 
and  southern  part  of  the  Baltic,  off  t^openhagen,  the  size  ranges  from  3  to  t!  lbs., 
whereas  300  miles  further  up,  oH'CJothland  Island,  they  run  from  2  to  3  lbs  :  at  l.'>0 
miles  further  up  near  Stockholm,  nearly  500  miles  from  the  Sound,  the  weight  is  barely 
I  or  2  pounds.  They  difler  in  colour,  being  darker,  and  showing  few  spots,  in  contrast 
to  the  rich  brownish  red  mottleil  markings  and  spots  of  the  cud  nearer  the  sea  or  out  in 
the  open  ocean.  The  Baltic  cod  .spawn  in  comjwratively  shallow  water  somewhat  late 
in  the  season  off  Gothlanil  and  Stockholm.  A  similar  instance  of  the  sea-cod's  change 
of  h.ibit  is  recorded  in  Iceland.  In  Olufs  Kjord  lake,  a  sheet  of  fresh  water  near  the 
mouth  of  the  romantic  Olufs  Fjord,  and  separated  by  a  neck  of  land  from  the  seaout- 

*  The  well  known  .Scttiah  autliority,  l)r  Pamell,  w»m»rtainly  wronfr  when  he  uid  'Cod  are  never 
oiind  but  in  salt  water,  and  reinam  habitually  in  the  depth  of  the  sea  (Fishes  of  the  Firth  of  Forth,  p.  334). 


31 


•idc,  th«raai«  found  ood,  not  dUlinguialMble  froa  the  marine  ood  nMpt  bv  thvir  ■nwllw 
dimonaions.     ThU  fraahwater  RfweiM,  kmlly  called  '  Mannwrw '  <•  not  found  •!■•- 
whera  in  Iceland.     In  a  Nona  Jonrnal  it  is  lUted  that  M.   Elia^  K^lun  ipMiallT 
mention*  this  Anh  aa  a  kind  of  ood  acclimatiied  to  trmh  water ;  but  an  opinion  esiete 
that  asubterritneanpaMiaga  did  or  does  allow  of  cominunioation  witii  the  lea,  and  the 
ood  may  have  found  entrance  in  that  way.     Herring,  it  ii  atated,  have  found  th«ir  way 
v*^     i*  '"*■*"""*'  '»•"»•  »"«1   having  pasaed  the  winter  niontha  there  have  died.     In 
England,  aroall  ood  0  to  8  inches  long  are  found  considerable  distancea  up  rivera.    Thua 
they  are  common  at  Ooole,  a  town  on  the  River  Ouite,  which  emptiea  into  the  estuary  of 
the  Humber,   in  Yorkshire.     In  Canada  at  leaat  Ave  species  of  Clupeoida  very  cI.mm'W 
allied  to  the  true  herring  migrate  up  rivers  to  spawn  in  fresh  water  (viz.,  the  gas- 
pereaux     or    alewivea,     I'omotobi)    two    apeoie^    of    shad    (Alotn)    have    the    same 
habit,    one    species    of  Donuoma,   the   Uizsard   shad,    which   aacends  the   St.   John 
River   in   New    Brunswick,   md    one    species    of   Br«voorlia,    vii.,     the    Menhaden 
or  Fogy.     Four  other  tpecies  of  clupeniila,  at  least,  have  Income  completely  acclimatized 
to  a  non-marine  environment,  viz.,    the  goldeye  (t/i-idon  alo»oidf»),  found  in  the  Red 
River,  Lake  Winnipeg,   and  western  waters,  the   mooneye  {Uiodon  hrguu*)  of  more 
eastern  lakea  and  rivers,   the  blu.»  herring  (I'omotobtu  chry»orMori»)  ond  the  alewife 
(F  jMeudohareug^u)   in  Lake  OnUrio  and   eaat^rn    watera.     The  last  named  occur  m 
LakeH  Cnyuga  anil  Seneca  and  in  western  New  York  State  ;  but  as  they  annually  die 
in  enormous  numbers  especially  in   June  and  July,  some  unfavourable  circumstance 
exiHta.  and  experts  are  generally  agreed  that  they  are  not  indigenous.     They  certainly 
reach  barely  haif  the  length  of  the  marine  forms  (i.e.  (i  or  7  inches  instead  of  12  or  l.'J 
mchea).    There   are  few  recorda   of  the  acclimatization   of  the  true  herring  but  it  ia 
intereatmg  to  note  that  a  ajiecial  race  of   herrings  ia   native  to  the   Baltic  Sea  called 
'  strdmming.'     They  are  smaller  than  the   herrings  found  in   perfectly  salt  water,  and 
paler  in  coloration ;  but,  contrary  U>  the   opinion  of   experienced  herring  fishermen, 
who  claim  that  herring-spawn  cannot  survive  the   influence  of  fresh  water,  li.e  Baltic 
hernng  spawn  in  suitable  grounds  irrespective  of  their  salinity— indeed  authorities  have 
declared  that  in   brackish    water,   where  rivers  debouch  iuto  the   sea.  there  is   more 
abundance  of  minute  food  for  the  young  herring  fry  to  live  upon,  and  such  localities  are 
«5^cially  favourable  for  breeding  herring.     In  the  Baltic  there  are  local  races  of  herring 
and,  like  their  congeners  in  the   sea,  they  spawn  at  two  p»>riod8,  viz.,  gprin«  and  late 
summer,  indeed  in  the  Southern  Baltic  the  spawning  tokes  place  as    late  as  Octolier. 
Nowhere  indeed  has  such  conclusive  evidence  been  furnisi.ed  of  the  very  limited  and  local 
range  of  the  schools  of  herring  as  in  the  Baltic  Sea.  Overfishing  and  unfavour.ihle  circum- 
sUnces  have  resultol  even  in  that  comparatively  limited  area,  (not  much  im.re  than  five 
times  the  area  of   Ukft  Superior)   in  the  entire   destruction  of  certain   local  herring 
fishones,  the  schools  freciuenting  other  bays  and  coastal  areas  not  moving  in  to  fill  the 
vacant  places  of  the  exterminated  twh.     LoflToden  herring  are  catiifht  in  Borgef  jord  and 
in  Lake  Pollen,  the  latter  almost  fi     h  water  but  both  connecte<l  with  the  Polar  Sea  by 
a  narrow  sound  and  the  catch  per  annum  amounts  from  SO  to  .■)0  tons.     They  live  and 
propagate  away  from  pure  sea  water.     Sea  herring,  and  a  smaller  species  closely  allied,  the 
sprat,  are  mentioned  as  successfully  confined  in  fresh  water  or  lather  brackish  water  by 
Mr  Arnold,  of  (Juernsey,  in  his  experiments  alreiwly  mentioned,  but  they  did  m)t  breed 
or  become  transformed  into  a  fresh  water  form,  as  is  certainly  the  case  with  the  Baltic 
herring,  specimens  of  which,  some  years  ago,    were  kept  for  a  long  period  in  a  fresh- 
water tank  at  the  St.  Andrew's  Laboratory,  Scotland,  under  the  superinUmdence  of  the 
eminent  zoologist.  Professor  Mcintosh. 

Many  instances  are  known  of  the  smelt  {0*meru»  mordax)  taking  to  a  life  in  fresh- 
water though  really  a  marine  species,  frequenting  brackish  water  and  migrating 
into  freshwater  mainly  in  the  fall  and  in  spring.  It  spawns  in  brackish  water  in 
spring.  Colonel  Meynell,  of  Yarni,  in  north  Yorkshire.  England,  neariv  oeventv  veara 
ago,  acclimatized  smelts  and  successfully  bred  them.  It  is  recorded  that'they  lived' '  for 
four  years  in  a  freshwater  pond,  having  no  communication  wit^  the  sea,  and  continued 
to  thrive,  and  propagaU  jundantly.  They  were  not  affected  by  freezing,  as  the  whole 
I»nd,  which  covered  abuut  three  acres,  was  so  frozen  over  as  to  admit  of  skating  When 
the  pond  was  drawn,  the  fishermen  of  the  Tees  considered  that  they  had  never  seen  a 


:^ 


as 


flnar  Mt  of  MMlta.  Than  wm  no  Iom  of  flkvoar  nor  o(  i|twiitv '.  Th*  kU  Sir  if 
OibM>n  MmUmkI  ■uooMtfulljr  (rM  thetMMMpmriiiMntwKl  mM  '•itbcr  th«  fnwh  w»Ur 
imtll  of  Amaric*  ot  our  own  0»m»ru*  tp^rUwu;  which  1  h»v»  inocMafuliy  bstohad. 
Mid  •m  now  raarini  in  frath  w»Ur,  it  intruduoed  into  •  Highland  kieh,  for  inatanc*, 
*  ^h  T»y,  would  enable  it  to  carry  a  vary  heavy  crop  of  loine  of  the  inland  ipecie*,  for 
inatance  laod-lookad  salmon,   Ac.     (Cultare  of  8alnionid«>,  Lond.   Int.  Fith  Exhibit. 

183.) 

In  New  Brunswick,  Dr.  Philip  Cos  has  deaoribed  a  land  locked  smelt— indeed  they 
altound  in  liooh  Iiomond,  near  tit.  John,  N.B.,  and  in  the  Cbamcuok  waters  in  the  Mme 
province.  Thems  land  liicked  varieties,  I  >r.  Jortlao,  the  eminent  ichthyologist,  regtrHs 
as  forming  at  IcsMt  two  Mpecies,  nr  rather  aubapecim,  distingui'ihable  from  the  sea  runn° 
smelt.  One  form,  the  vVilton  »melt  (Oimtrun  inonla.r  tfrnHrum)  is  land  lockeo 
Wiltnn  Fond  in  Maine,  and  the  other  form,  thf  Cobessiconlio  Hiuelt  (Otnuiruit  numiax 
abbotti)  ix  found  in  the  qeighbouriiig  watern  of  Cobessicimtic  I^ke,  in  Maine.  In  somo 
inHtancea  tliore  are  narrow  outleli  to  the  sea.  But  th«>  nmelt  having  i«ct|uired  the  habit 
of  remainini;  pcrmnnently  in  fresh  water,  shows  no  tendency  to  migrate  t«»  salt  water. 
The  lamJ  locked  nmelt  in  Lake  Onuwa,  Maine,  cannot  descend  to  the  sea  and  they  alnund 
in  the  lake*  The  true  smelt  belongs  to  the  family  siihiioniclie  iind  is  therefore  allied  to 
the  trout,  salmon  and  whiteflsh :  but  the  m)  called  sand  nmelt,  often  terme<l  the 
Atherine  (Atlierina),  of  which  six  species,  occur  in  more  southerly  Wiiterx  on  the  Atlantt- 
shorew  of  this  j-diitinent.  b  more  nearly  relaUnl  to  the  niulletH  {MugiHdm)  and  the  sand- 
rollerst  (I'ftcoiniiln').  The  athennc  to  the  untraine<l  eye  might  be  reaihly  regimled  as 
a  smelt,  and  like  the  smelt  it  has  kiec  i  acelimatized  to  fresh  w»ter,  indeed  the  Guernsey 
experiment  demonstrated  t;.i8,  as  the  atherine  in  Mr.  ArnoldV  pond  were  amongst  the 
most  suceensful  sjM-eieM.  The  malletM  ine  esi^entirtliy  sea  f  yet  instances  are  numerous 
or  the  reU'nlit>n  of  these  fish  in  fresh  water  inelosures.  In  the  (iuernsey  pond  the 
iiiullet  survived,  but  did  not  breed  or  become  properly  occlimatiied,  but  in  a  fresh  water 
pond  in  Tampa  Buy,  Klorida,  mullet  are  found  in  great  numters  along  with  sheepshead 
{H/tariiM  or  Aicho»iirgn»),  red  fish  (l'agru»),  i:c.  A  oorresptmde-.  t  in  the  Ameriean 
Anylir,  April,  189^*,  describes  this  lake,  which  is  named  '  8alt  Lake,'  a^  '  l  i  ^ 
long  by  1}  miles  broad,  huving  two  small  fresh  water  streams  pouring  into  it,  and  uue 
small  outlet  through  low  marshy  woodland,  connecting  it  with  Tampa  Bay  at  high  water. 
Twenty  five  yeais  ago  this  arm  of  the  Iwy  was  suit,  and  peopled  by  salt  water  fish,  but 
during  a  violent  storm  a  bank  was  heaped  up  tutting  off  the  lake,  and  inclosing  some 
schools  of  murine  lish.  Home  sharks  and  sting  rays  were  imprisoned,  but  seemed  unable 
to  survive  the  winter  (lMt<5).  The  water  became  a  little  brackish  :  but,  says  the  writer 
refened  to.  '  it  is  now  perfectly  sweet  and  fresh,  and  has  a  slight  current  towards  thesmall 
outlet  where  the  water  drains  off'.  Red  fish  are  caught  in  the  lake  weighing  3H  lbs. 
and  of  much  richer  red  colour,  and  of  finer  and  more  delicate  flavour  than  those  taken 
in  the  sea  outside.  This  last  remark  applies  to  nmllets  and  many  sea  lish  whenacclimati/ed 
in  freili  water.  Thus  Dr.  J.  C  Mitchell,  an  authority  on  the  tishes  of  Kjjypt,  tells  us 
that  three  species  of  mullet  frequent  brackish  water  there,  and  when  retained  in  fresh 
water  j)onds  nttain  a  greater  size  and  a  more  excellent  flavour.  He  descrilies  Lake 
Meiizaleh.  which  communicates  with  the  sea  by  an  an.ient  mouth  of  the  Nile.  It  is 
brackish,  but  varies  in  salinity  at  different  seasons.  Near  the  fresh  water 
inlets  it  is  comparatively  fresh,  but  near  the  sea  entrance  it  is  more  salt, 
and  while  there  is  a  p"re|)onderance  of  marine  species  in  the  Salter  portions, 
the  influx  of  flood  water  from  the  Nile  affects  the  salinity  of  the  whole 
lake,  and  many  species,  wanderers  from  the  sea,  succumb  to  the  change<l 
conditions.  Dr.  Mitchell  states  that  all  the  mullets  spawn  in  the  sea  and  they  as  a 
family  are  essentially  shore  tishes  ;  but  they  have  a  preference  for  the  mouths  of  rivers, 
and  cut-off  lakes  where  the  water  is  brackish,  while  not  unfre<iuently  they  are  found  to 
enter  rivers,'  indeed  MttgU  cephcUut  and  Mugil  eayito  have  been  caught  more  than  600 
miles  up  the  Nile,  as  far  south  that  is  to  wvy  as  Assouan.     '  When  kept  in  fmsh  wat«r 


*L»ii<l  lockwl  Httlmon  frwiueiitlj;  wcur  in  lakw  iubahittx)  by  land  locked  Bitielt,  and  the  latter  rosy 
Msxmnt  for  thf  low!  irf  the  migratory  inntinct  in  the  former  an  the  Hslmun  are  found  to  mainly  fw<l  uijon  the 
smelt. 


IS 


ponda'Mldalh-.  MitcMI,  'moJltt  ••*  found  U>  improve  r»pidljr  in  wrtght  »nd  oondi- 
Son,'  Mid  h«  RUggMMd  to  th*  Eiryptlm  gorernii.  ui  ihi-  raparinent  of  utooking  freth 
wkMr  pondi  with  nullat  fry,  which  in  midtummar  abound  in  tli«  in*hora  (hallow*  n{ 

Laka  Maniaieh.  .        ,  ^        . 

The  (lat-ttihea  an'  withoat   escaption   marina,  yat   eerUin  unaoiaa  of  Roondar  ara 
found  to  wandt-r  up   river*  Iobk  di»tanc«*   from   aalt   watar.     The   eummon    flounder 
nttnrrmmtei j^ntt  aa  Frank   Buckland  autwl  '  inhahiu  evary  part  of  the  Hritiih  coaat, 
and  ofU-n  aac-and  to  riven  beyond  tha  reach  of  the  tide,  thriving  alike  in  »alt,  brackiih  or 
in  freah  water.     Now  that  tha  Thameit  i»  Kitting  purer,  tha  floundem  are  returiing  to 
tha  river  above  London  Bridge.'     Many  yeara  ago  I  caught  Knecirocn*  «»f  the  flounder 
at  Biooal,  near  York,  on  the  Ou»e,  in  the  north  of  KngUnd,  fully  Hfly  Ave  milea  from 
tha  aea,  and  they  are  recorded  on  triliuUrieH  of  the  Ou»e  (vii.,  the  Nidd  and  Kibble), 
over  eighty  inilea  from  tha  mouth  of  the  Hum>>ar.    An  tha  iipeciea  of  rtf.und»<r  mentioned 
and  moat  of  the  flat-liah,  indeed,  p<«*e««  floatin«  egg»  not  at  all  favourablf  for  deposition 
in  rivera  and  running  water,  i'-  i»  prolmble  that  they  do  not  succ>«afully  bree«l  away 
from  th»>  aea,  aa  theii  eggt  would  appear  to  have  little  chance  of  Huivival.      I>r.  Parnell 
makes  thf  claim,  which  liiui  already  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  other  upeciea  of 
Ash,  that  flounderH  found  in  freah  water  are  more  hiwhly  e-teemed  for  the  Ubie  than 
thoea  uken  in  aalt  water.     He  alio  makex  the  que8t)ontt^>le  aitiertion  that  they  spawn 
in  brackinh  water  in  March  and  April,   but  they  cerUinly   make  iht'ir  way  into  frenh 
water  in  many  caiwa  at  a  very  early  alagc.     Thun,  Profeasor  Mclntoah  deitcriliea  them 
as  occurring  numerou*ly  in  May  at  the  outlet  of  a  mill  itream,  which  pours  freah  water 
into  8t.  Andrew's  HarlMur,  Scotland,  atid  their  length  at  rliat  time  was  ban-ly  half  iin 
inch.   Young  floundera  very  little  older,  Or.  Mclntoah  adds,  can  lie  captured  conaideralile 
distances  up  the  fresh  water  stream.     Other  species  of  flat-tkhes  appear  less  hanly  and 
venturesome.     Tha    p'aice    (Pleuron«Hi-»    tJalctm)   has,    however,    lK?en    suca-sitfully 
retained   and   fattened   in   freshwater   ponds,   as  Dr.    Parnell  states,  and  the  highly 
esteemed  sole  (Sdra  vulf/arin)  and  the   turlwt  (RhomhiiH   maximym)  were  thoroughly 
acclimatized  by  Mr.  Arnold,  in  Ouernst-y.     Thire  i»  only  one  record  of  thf  occurrence 
of   thn   solo  under  natural  conditions  in    pi-actioally   fresh    water   limiU,    viz.,    near 
the   mouth   of    the   Yoik.sliire   Ouse,    in   the   estuary   of   the  Huraber.     .Such   ftshes 
OS   the   striped   bass,    which,     like   the    snieli,     regularly    asc.ous   for   some  distance 
fresh-water  streams,    might   be   expected    to    survive    retention,   and  this   has   been 
proved  to  be  the  case.     In  some  of  the  larger  Canadian   rivers,   the  St.  John   River 
and   the   Miram.chi   River    for    example,  striped   liass  (Raccu»  linealus)  inigrate   for 
distances  of  from  thirty  to  forty  milea  above  the  limits  of  sea  water,  and  congregate  in 
large  schools  in  deep  holes  in  the  bed  of  the  river.     There  they   remain  in  a  dormant 
condition,  resting  on  the  muddy  bottom,  and  are  captured  in  grrat  numbers  by  a  kind 
of  scoop  net.     Dr.  Perley  in  his  '8ea  and  River  Fisheries  of  New   Brunswick  '  (1852) 
says  'the  places  which  they  frequent  are  easily  discovered,  the  fish  being  seen  through 
the  clear  ice  when  it  first  makes  ;  large  holes  are  cut  in  the  ice,  and   the  tish  are  lifted 
out  with  a  circular  net  cm  a  strong  vooden  bow,  called  a  dip-net.     All  the  fish  in  each 
locality,  of  whatever  size  are  thus  taken  ;  and  in  many  of  the  northern  rivers,  ei»pecially 
the  Richibucto,  and  North-west  Miramichi,  where  they  were  formerly  very  a)>undant, 
they  are  now  quite  scarce  and  only  found  of  small  size.'     There  is  record  of  a  striped 
Imiss  confined  in  a  fresh  water  pond  which  grew  to  a  weight  of  20  pounds— a  considerable 
weight  for  a  fish  retained  for  some  years  in  abnormal  surroundings.     The  flavour  too  of 
the  impounded  striped  bass  is  stated  to  improve,  for  Dr.  MacCulloch  personally  vouched 
for  the  superiority  of  the  flavour  of  the  specimens  confined  in  Mr.  Arnold's  fresh- water 
lake  in  Guernsey. 

Fish  vary  so  greatly  in  their  tenacity  of  life,  that  until  experiments  have  shown 
what  any  particular  species  can  endure  without  pennanent  injury,  it  is  not  possible  to 
foretell  ita  capabilities.  The  German  carp,  for  example  has  peculiar  tenacity  and 
endurance.  A  member  of  Pariiauient  inforuied  me,  a  year  or  two  ago,  of  a  fine  sprcimt-n 
of  carp  that  was  found  several  miles  from  Ijike  Erie  where  they  were  planted  and 
now  abound.  This  carp  was  a  very  large  specimen  and  was  wriggling  along  a  plough- 
furrow  in  which  there  was  little  or  no  water,  evidently  kept  moist  and  alive  by  the 
thick  damp  herbage,  just  as  they  may  lie  kept  alive  in  damp  moss.  The  accomplished 
E  E.  P. — 3. 


34 


angling  authority  of  New  York,  Mr.  Win.  C.  HarriH,  records  a  hardly  less  eitraordinary 
cas-e  of  the  tenacity  of  the  German  carp :  '  Many  clubs  are  draining  their  ponds  in  the 
hope  to  eradicate  this^fish  ;  but  it  will  be  well  to  do  the  work  thoroughly,  for  Mr  Louis 
Papitieau,  of  Montebello,  Canada,  tells  us  of  a  carp  pond  being  drained,  cleaned  and 
exposed  for  some  days  until  it  was  thoroughly  dry.  On  the  sixth  lay  water  was  intro- 
duce'l,  and  some  hours  after  several  large  c  irp  were  seen  swimining  near  the  surface. 
This  is  another  striking  instance  of  the  vitality  of  this  fish,  which  evidently  burrowed 
into  the  mud  a.s  the  pond  was  drained.*  .Many  fishes  are  able  t«>  survive  dry  sea-sons  by 
immersing  themselves  in  mud  ;  but  they  are  Hpeciiilly  organized  for  that  peculiar  habit. 
The  bull-head  trilie,  (.yi/Hrt(/a«),  are  hardy  and  tenacious  and  l>eing  exceptionally  goo<l 
table  tiiih  aflFonl  a  fine  field  for  experiment  in  acclimatization. 

The  Catfish  family,  including  so  many  forms  notoriously  hardy  and  tenacious  of  life 
miglit  U>  supposed  to  present  numerous  examples  of  acclimatization  by  transference  from 
frosl.  water  to  salt  water  Yet  the  records  of  successful  transplanting  are  few.  There 
are  thiriy  or  ft)rty  sf  ecies  which  are  strictly  marine  ;  but  certain  of  the  fresh  water  spe- 
cies have  lieen  found  to  be  capable  of  etiduring  life  in  salt  water.  Thus  the  Finhing 
atnHte  (of  New  York)  announced  in  .\i>ril,  18<tG,  the  capture  of  a  freshwater  catfi.sh  in 
the  sea  at  (Jravesend  Bay,  Long  Island.  A  few  days  later,  six  '  squaretailed  bullheads', 
of  thi-  same  kind  as  the  foregoing,  were  takoo  in  a  hoop  or  fvke-net,  and  they  were  kept 
alive  for  xonic  days  by  alternately  supplying  fresh  and  salt  water  in  imitation  of  the 
tidal  inflow  and  outflow,  but  the  fish  could  not  be  kept  in  captivity  very  long.  No 
doubt  by  a  L'ladual  pii>cess  of  change  the  common  catfislies  of  our  lakes  and  rivers  could 
1)6  acclimatized,  and  their  increasing  market  importance  would  give  great  value  to  the 
expcviment.  If  the  fresh  water  s)>ecies  could  b<;  so  acclimatized  as  to  endure  or  nitlier 
live  in  health  in  water  strongly  impregrated  with  saline  and  alkaline  matters,  their 
.suitability  for  introduction  into  certain  barnn  waters  in  the  north-west  of  the  Domi- 
nion would  be  demonstrated.  Hut  while  numerous  instances  ate  to  hand  of  salt  water 
fishes  becoming  completely  icconciled  to  a  fresh  water  environment,  the  cases  seem  to 
be  far  rarer  of  fishes,  native  to  fresh  water,  a'^suming  a  salt  water  existence.  Yet 
Bloch  sfimcwhere  states  that  tlie  grayling,  one  of  the  most  delicate  and  fastidious  of  the 
salm<moids,  frc(|uents  the  Baltic  and  the  Caspian  Sea.  Sir  Humphrey  l»avy,  curiously 
enough,  laid  special  stress  u|)On  this  very  fxjint.  that  while  salmon  and  tnmt  readily  endure 
such  changes  ,,f  conditions,  the  grayling  ('ri,:i„uijl,ig)  will  not  bear  evei»  brackish  water 
without  dying,  (irayling  and  r)eich  undoubtedly  live  in  certain  parts  of  the  Baltic 
which  Linnaeus  slated,  after  drinking  some  of  the"  water,  is  very  slightly  brackish,  even 
a  mile  from  the  shore  in  the  upper  portion.  The  perch  (P,-rcn  /lnivscfnn)  is  found  -  3ry 
abundantly  at  the  mouth  of  the  Miramichi  and  other  Canadian  rivers,  where  the  water 
is  i|uit«  saline,  indeed  where  the  estuary  is  practically  part  of  the  sea. 

There  are  numerous  species  of  very  small  fish,  of  no  importance  from  an  economic 
point  of  view,  which  frequent  indifferently  sea  water  and  freshwater.  Thus  the  G,i  8- 
tronteido  or  stickle  backs  are  found  in  astonishing  abundance  i.i  shallow  estuarie.s,  and 
the  three  sjiined  species  nests,  breeds  and  passes  its  whole  life  frecjuently  in  small  pools 
just  alKjve  high  water  mark,  where  high  tides  thoroughly  impregnate  the  water  with 
sail  le  matters  :  but  which  during  most  of  the  year  are  kept  slightly  brackish  by  trickling 
streams  of  fresh  water  from  the  adjacent  laiid.  There  are  of  course  genuine  marine 
species  in  the  family,  one  (Ga^trostens  xpiiiacltia),  the  fifteen  spined  species,  builds  a 
large  nest  of  AVuxor  other  marine  plants  attached  to  rocks  Iwtween  tide  marks,  another 
(1.  gliidinwuhiH  is  found  in  the  ea-t  Atlantic  coast  amid  floating  sea  weeds.  Oa>!lro«t.„K 
pitngtliiiH,  the  ten  spined  species,  is  recorded  from  brackish  and  salt  water,  but  its  rela- 
tives, especially  Gaxtrtmienif  ariih-atiiti,  are  found  flistributed,  from  lakes  and  streai"  for 
inland  and  up  the  highest  mountains  to  low  lying  marine  swamps  and  estuaries  T  td 
the  species  named  often  aUmnds  in  pools  just  aU.ut  high-water  mark  making  it  ^all 
mound  like  nest  and  rearing  its  numerous  families  regardless  of  the  variety  of  ndi- 
tions  obtaining  in  these  various  situations.  There  is  no  more  remarkable  featui  prt 
sented  by  fishes  than  this  incapability,  on  the  one  hand,  in  some  species,  of  enduring 
salt  water  or  even  brackish  water  ;  and  on  the  other  hand  in  other  species,  the  capability 

.,*, •*!*■""'"'  'V^'fit?  "'  '■^''l'  """'•'"liinft  ill  liof  »>nl  in  iilkalinc  wau-id  ttre.iiicsti.inablc  (S<*  Bulletin  U.8 
ri«h  ' 'Hiimi.".  \:A.  \\ ..  p.  lai  jinii  Vi>!   V  ,  i..  4-.?7. 


35 

ot  living  and  flourishing  in  the  mid«t  r.f  »  »      u 

water  environment.  '"'^'^  "^  "  ^""h  --ter.  brackish  or  even  .xtre.ne  salt 

The  plasticity  of  various  so*-"'  -    „   -Ki.  .  ■ 

would  be  of  great  value      C;    C.,.  r?-  "^^P^"*  '»  »  matter  upon  which  Pvn.,' 

damp  r.«k8  out  of  water  that   )„.     t,.    v  V         «  ,**'  *"  """"stomed  itself  to  ivi„    ,1 
I'e  ><aw  of  .te  h.ibit«  heoxDwt.     n  „  u         ^  '     «alfouronce  declared  that  Xn.      ". 
rae.-ion  i„  water.     'Thes^shes    »       T.  '^''  '""''''  ^  inevitably  dmwned   l.v         ""■''' 

seaweed  and  the  surface  of  thV-^.         '  .  "^  Jump  along  by  a  series  of  llln  ?'' 

neath  the  surface  "  ThL  «n!  T'f' '.""'^  f^'^^'''-  «««?!*«  in  that  w»v  rP'''."^''.'-f'ck«, 
carried  on  .-.ne'^:xperitrrZ  ^t'  '''■  '"''"  ^'*^''  ^-tl-e  "f  st?  H„rX'T^'  '"- 
smn  may  be  statedl  fdlows      tuJT  "**."'  ""  *'"'  ^''""tJ  of   fishes  aZtP        V' 

*l'rrii>|)litiiiilmn.s. 


M