A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 2 (of 2)Jordan, David Starr
History
A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 2 (of 2)
Jordan, David Starr
Fishes; Fishes -- Bibliography; Zoology -- History
In Alaska the Dolly Varden, locally known as salmon-trout, is very
destructive to the eggs of the salmon, and countless numbers are taken
in the salmon-nets of Alaska and thrown away as useless by the canners.
In every coastwise stream of Alaska the water fairly "boils" with these
trout. They are, however, not found in the Yukon. In northern Japan
occurs _Salvelinus pluvius_, the iwana, a species very similar to the
Dolly Varden, but not so large or so brightly colored. In the Kurile
region and Kamchatka is another large charr, _Salvelinus kundscha_, with
the spots large and cream-color instead of crimson.
[Illustration:
FIG. 78.—Great Lake Trout, _Cristivomer namaycush_ (Walbaum). Lake
Michigan.
]
=Cristivomer, the Great Lake Trout.=—Allied to the true charrs, but now
placed by us in a different genus, _Cristivomer_, is the Great Lake
trout, otherwise known as Mackinaw trout, longe, or togue (_Cristivomer
namaycush_). Technically this fish differs from the true charrs in
having on its vomer a raised crest behind the chevron and free from the
shaft. This crest is armed with strong teeth. There are also large
hooked teeth on the hyoid bone, and the teeth generally are
proportionately stronger than in most of the other species. The Great
Lake trout is grayish in color, light or dark according to its
surroundings; and the body is covered with round paler spots, which are
gray instead of red. The dorsal and caudal fins are marked with darker
reticulations, somewhat as in the brook-trout. This noble species is
found in all the larger lakes from New England and New York to
Wisconsin, Montana, the Mackenzie River, and in all the lakes tributary
to the Yukon in Alaska. We have taken examples from Lake Bennett, Lake
Tagish, Summit Lake (White Pass), and have seen specimens from Lake La
Hache in British Columbia. It reaches a much larger size than any
_Salvelinus_, specimens of from fifteen to twenty pounds weight being
not uncommon, while it occasionally attains a weight of fifty to eighty
pounds. As a food-fish it ranks high, although it may be regarded as
somewhat inferior to the brook-trout or the whitefish. Compared with
other salmonoids, the Great Lake trout is a sluggish, heavy, and
ravenous fish. It has been known to eat raw potato, liver, and
corn-cobs,—refuse thrown from passing steamers. According to Herbert, "a
coarse, heavy, stiff rod, and a powerful oiled hempen or flaxen line, on
a winch, with a heavy sinker; a cod-hook, baited with any kind of flesh,
fish, or fowl,—is the most successful, if not the most orthodox or
scientific, mode of capturing him. His great size and immense strength
alone give him value as a fish of game; but when hooked he pulls
strongly and fights hard, though he is a boring, deep fighter, and
seldom if ever leaps out of the water, like the true salmon or
brook-trout."
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