176 The Life Story of the Fish 



that the more than fifteen species of trout formerly recog- 

 nized in California are really variations of not more than 

 three or four distinct species. The lumpers perhaps go to 

 extremes, even as the splitters did, but their influence is 

 salutary. 



This classification of the trouts is a puzzle which I have 

 no intention of inflicting on the reader, but a general idea of 

 their interrelationships can be had without suffering. The 

 two best-known groups are the genus Salvelinus, to which 

 belong the eastern brook trout and the Dolly Varden, and 

 the genus Sdmo, to which belong not only all the trouts of 

 the rainbow and cutthroat series, but also the Atlantic salmon 

 and the brown trout. The lake trout is isolated in the genus 

 Cristivomer. 



The distinction which anglers make between the Loch 

 Leven and the brown trout has no support among scientists, 

 who now look upon the former as merely a variation of the 

 latter. And the word "char," current in England, is little 

 used in the United States. The English maintain, generally 

 with a note of implied disparagement, that our eastern brook 

 is not a trout at all but a char. Webster's International Dic- 

 tionary tells us that a char is "any trout of the genus Salve- 

 linus,'' According to this definition, "char" is a particular 

 word describing one form of a group called by the more 

 general word, "trout." A char is a trout although a trout 

 is not always a char. The brown is a trout but not a charj our 

 eastern brook and our Dolly Varden are both chars and 

 trouts. 



Once upon a time, all the country now known as the 

 United States was divided into two parts as far as trout were 

 concerned. In all the waters draining into the Atlantic, the 

 eastern brook trout ruled the waves. The Atlantic salmon 

 made annual migrations into the streams to spawn, and 

 established scattered non-migratory colonies which we call 



