File:Commissioners' report (1892) (14755602765).jpg

Identifier: commissionersrep00onta (find matches)
Title: Commissioners' report
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Ontario. Game and fish commission Wright, Robert Ramsay, 1852-1933
Subjects: Game and game-birds Game protection Fisheries Fishes
Publisher: Toronto, Printed by Warwick & sons
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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ute a characteristicallymarine group, and there are only a few forms which live in bracki.sh or fieshwater. Both of the species which have been re()orted from Ontario belong tothe genus Roccus, viz., the Striped Bas.s, (rock-tish of the Atlantic coast) lioccuslineatus, and the White Bass, lioccus chrysops, an exclusively fresh-water form. The former can hardly be regarded as a native of the Province; it ascendsthe St. Lawrence as far as Quebec, and has been taken at the mouth of theNiagara River, but is essentially a brackish water form, and is regarded as thebest marine game-fi-^h. The hitter is, on the other hand, common in the GreatLake Region, and attains a weight of fiom one to three pounds. They wereformerly still commoner in Lake Erie, s ) as to be of comuiercial value and uot onlyof interest to the sportsman ; their disapp^arauce is probably due to the multipli-cation of pound-nets, but is not regretted by fisherman as they were very de-structive to whitefish spawn. (Plate 33.
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456 Another marine family represented in our fresh waters is that of theSciiEXiDiE, fish of compressed and elevated body with a long dorsal fin, thoracicventrals, and a complicated aii-bladder. The Lake Sheepshead (Aplodinolus(jfunniens) is the only fresh-water species ; it is sometimes s))oken of as the LakeHuron Drum, from a peculiar gruntinsT noise which it produces, and which isattributed by some to movements of the air in the air-bladder, and by others,with more i)robal)ilifcy, to the crunching up of the crayfish on which it lives, bythe broad grinding teeth of the lower pharyngeal bones, which are mostcharacteristic of the species. The fish attainsa length of four feet and a weightof fifty to sixty pounds, but is not valued for food, at least not from the GreatLakes. Before leaving the spiny-rayed fishes reference may be made to two familiesof minute fishes which differ conspicuously in their appearance and habits, butwhich have one or two fresh-water species. The first of these

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