THE GB AY LING 23 



THE GRAYLING AT CAE1B0U CROSSING 



By President DAVID STARR JORDAN} 



STANFORD UNIVERSITY 



O AINT AMBROSE, of blessed memory, a fisherman of old, like- 

 ^ wise a fisher of men, " magnanimous, plaintive and intense," once 

 declared in his town of Treves in Gaul, Trevirorum of the Black Gate, 

 fifteen hundred years ago, that the grayling was " the flower of fishes." 

 This it certainly is, the most choice, the most unhackneyed, of all 

 the prizes of the angler. 



The Latin name of the grayling, Thymallus, comes from the fact 

 that, when fresh, the fish has the odor of wild thyme, a fragrant 

 mint, common on the brooksides of Northern England. Shakespeare 

 knew on the Avon in Stratford " a bank whereon the wild thyme 

 grows," and I too have found in fragrant Warwickshire many a slope 

 which well answers to Shakespeare's description. But though the gray- 

 ling is a sweet fish, pleasant to smell as well as to see when it comes 

 forth fresh from the ripple, yet I have never been able to detect the 

 odor the ancients knew so well. 



The grayling is cousin to the trout. Its mouth is smaller, its teeth 

 are not so sharp and it has neither the strength nor the speed nor the 

 voracity of the least of the trout. Its scales are larger than in any 

 trout, and there are blue spots as well as black spots on them on a 

 gray background. There is never any red, and from the prevailing 

 gray comes the fine old English name of grayling, as well as the 

 German name of assch. 



The shape of body and fins is like the trout. The little adipose fin 

 is there just the same as in the trout. But the dorsal fin is different. 

 It is much higher than in any trout, and it has more rays. It rises 

 up like a sail and it is marked by sky-blue spots which give the fish 

 a distinguished appearance when it is at home in its native waters. 



The grayling lives in swift, clear streams — not often in lakes. It 

 calls for colder water than the trout, and so its range is farther to the 

 north. 'Indeed, it is comparatively a rare fish outside the Arctic circle. 



The different species of grayling are all very much alike in looks as 

 well as in habits. The common grayling of Europe is Thymallus 

 thymallus. It ranges through northern England, Scotland, Scandi- 

 navia and Russia. There is, likewise, a species of grayling spread 

 all over Siberia, but we know very little about this fish, and are not 

 sure what species it is. 



