MASCALLONGE.
_Esox
Estor--Masqueallongé--Muskellunge--Muscalinga--Masquinongy--Maskinonge--Muscanonga._
The sides of the body are marked with numerous rounded, distinct greyish
spots. Three bands of card-like teeth are situated on the roof of the
mouth, on the palatines and vomer, converging to a point toward the
snout. There are long, sharp, distinct teeth along the edges of the
upper and lower jaw, and continued to the extremity of the latter,
although some authorities assert the contrary. The gill-arches are also
covered with teeth. Mascallonge reach a length of about six feet and a
weight of seventy pounds, and the comparative length of the head with
the whole fish is as one to four. The fin-rays are as follows:
Branchial or gill-rays 20; Dorsal 18; Pectoral 16; Ventral 11; Anal 17;
Caudal 24; according to my best computation.
Br. 18; D. 21; P. 13; V. 11; A. 21; C. 19-7/7.--_Dr. De Kay._
D. 21; P. 14; V. 11; A. 17; C. 26.--_Dr. Mitchill._
D. 22; P. 18; V. 13; A. 20; C. 26.--_Prof. Agassiz._
The lateral line is not continuous, the under jaw is more elongated than
that of the northern pickerel and some fish have on their sides dark
spots on a light greyish ground.
The name of this fish is derived from _Masque allongé_, long snout,
which is a translation from the Canadian Indian dialect, of
_Masca-nonga_, words which have the same signification; and from
corruptions of these two designations arise our numerous names. I took
great pains to ascertain precisely how the Canadian boatmen, who are a
cross of the Indian and Frenchman, pronounced this name, although, in
their French _patois_, he is ordinarily called _Brochat_, and the best
my ears could make of it was _Mas-_ or _Muscallung_, the latter syllable
being guttural. But as the most sonorous, expressive and appropriate
name is Mascallonge, it is desirable that all sportsmen should employ
it.
There is a dispute as to the size and weight that these fish attain, and
while some writers claim for them a fabulous size, others entirely
underrate them. Mr. S. D. Johnston, the proprietor of the Walton House,
at Clayton, a son of Mr. Johnston, who was a prominent man in the
Canadian rebellion, and for many years forced to hide among the Thousand
Isles and live by his hook and spear, said that the largest fish he ever
saw was taken by his father, who, in one night, speared two Mascallonge
weighing respectively sixty-three and forty-two pounds. There is plenty
of authority to prove that there was taken near Clayton, in the year
1859, a mascallonge that measured five feet seven inches in length, and
weighed fifty-one and three-quarter pounds, that it was poor and thin,
and in good condition would probably have weighed over sixty pounds. One
fisherman caught in a single year twelve mascallonge, ranging from
twenty-one to forty-four pounds. Larger fish and far greater numbers may
perhaps be taken in wilder waters, and, indeed, in some of the lakes in
the remote parts of Canada these fish are innumerable.
Their length, proportionally to their weight, is, in consequence of
their peculiar shape, excessive; a fish of twenty-five pounds’ weight
will measure forty-six inches in length by six in depth, and a fish of
seventy pounds it is presumed would be over six feet in length. Although
this is not quite equal to the great pike of Pliny, that weighed a
thousand pounds, and was drawn out by a pair of oxen, and caught on a
hook attached to an ox chain, it must be regarded by the most fastidious
as respectable for the present degenerate days. If the accounts we
receive are reliable, the pike of Europe, of which the old song
erroneously says:
“Turkeys, carps, hoppes, piccarel and beer
Came into England all in one year,”
vastly surpass ours in size, a fish being taken in a pond near Stockholm
with a brass ring round his neck, having an inscription to the effect
that he had been put into the pond by the hands of Frederick the Second
in 1230, or 267 years before. He weighed 350 pounds, and measured
fifteen feet, and his skeleton was a long time preserved at Manheim. The
ring was arranged with springs so as to enlarge as he grew. The Shannon
is said to have produced a pike of ninety-two pounds, and Lock Spey one
of one hundred and forty-six; but, when reading of these accounts, I
feel like the Yankee, who, when boasting of his great country, and
especially its great cataract, was somewhat taken aback by being told
his land produced no volcanoes, nothing to equal Vesuvius or Etna, but
who, after thinking a moment, replied: “That was true those were big
fires, but he guessed Niagara had water enough to put them all out.” So
I think our mascallonge could eat up the biggest pike Europe can
produce; and it will be a pity if, when our country is as old as Europe,
we cannot tell as extensive stories.[15]