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Siscowet
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The siscowet differs from the ordinary Great Lake trout in having a deeper body which is covered with a thicker skin, beneath which is an excessive development of fatty tissue. The scales are somewhat larger and the colour is usually somewhat paler.
This fish is practically confined to Lake Superior where it is abundant in deep water. Occasional examples have been taken in Lakes Huron and Erie.
GENUS SALVELINUS RICHARDSON
The Charrs
Body moderately elongate; teeth of jaws, palatines, and tongue essentially as in Salmo, the hyoid patch present or not; vomer boat-shaped, the shaft much depressed, without raised crest, with teeth on the head of the bone but none on the shaft; scales very small, 200 to 250 in a lengthwise series; fins moderate, the caudal forked in the young, truncate in some species in the adult; sexual peculiarities not strongly marked, the males with the premaxillaries enlarged and a fleshy projection at the tip of the lower jaw.
The scales of the charrs are, in general, smaller than in any other Salmonidae, and they are imbedded in the skin to such a degree as to escape the notice of casual observers and even of many anglers.
"One trout scale in the scales I lay
(If trout had scales), and twill outweigh
The wrong side of the balances."--Lowell.
Colour, usually dark, with round crimson spots, the lower fins sometimes with marginal bands of black, reddish, and pale.
Species numerous in the clear cold streams and lakes of the northern parts of both continents, sometimes descending to the sea where they lose their variegated colour and become nearly plain and silvery.
The members of this genus are by far the most active and handsome of the trout, living only in the clearest, coldest and most secluded waters. "No higher praise can be given to a Salmonoid than to say it is a charr."
As now understood by most ichthyologists this genus is represented in America by 4 species and some 6 or 7 subspecies. Perhaps it is just as well to recognize most, if not all, of these subspecies as full species. This is certainly best in all cases where intergrading has not been proved.
a. Back unspotted, strongly marbled with dark olive or black.
b. Colour, dark olive; side with numerous red spots; fontinalis
bb. Colour, pale grayish; very few red spots; .....agassizii
aa. Back not marbled with darker.
c. Back with red or orange spots like those on sides; parkei
cc. Back unspotted, the red spots confined to the sides; maxillary usually not reaching beyond the eye.
d. Gillrakers numerous, 6+12 to 16; head rather large, 4 to 4 1/2 in body; body rather stout; belly orange in breeding season.
e. Gillrakers longer and straighter than in the next, 2/5 length of eye, 7+14 in number; .....alipes
ee. Gillrakers quite short, not 1/3 length of eye, about 6+12 in number; .....aureolus
dd. Gillrakers fewer, 6+11, small; head small; 4 1/4 to 5 in length; body slender; .....oquassa