XXX.-NOTES ON THE GRAYLING OF NORTH AMERICA. 



By James W. Milner. 



The grayling has recently attracted a great deal of attention in the 

 United States. The discovery, in accessible localities, of a fish of great 

 beauty and fine game qualities, that hitherto was regarded as peculiar to 

 the Arctic rivers of British America and to the Old World, gave it at once 

 great prominence in the estimation of fish-culturists and anglers. These 

 qualities are to be regarded as its special claim to attention rather than 

 any likelihood that it is to become an extensive food-resource. As the 

 latter purpose has been the only one so far recognized by the United States 

 Commission, the propagation of this species is not likely to receive its 

 attention. Yet, in view of the fact that the sport of angling is so generally 

 l^opular, and that the presence of the game-fishes in the streams and 

 rivers of a region are appreciated as no minor attraction, the possession 

 of this beautiful fish is of sufficient consequence to deserve consideration 

 under the State appropriations.* 



A species inhabiting the headwaters of the Missouri River was ob- 

 served in 1860 by Surgeon J. F. Head, U. S. A. In his correspondence, 

 he called the attention of other naturalists to the fact, and asserted the 

 tributaries of the Missouri west of Fort Benton to be its habitat. Speci- 

 mens have since been obtained from Willow Creek and the Gallatin 

 Fork of the Missouri by the United States Geological Survey, t and, 

 through application made by Surgeon J, F. Head, others have been 

 obtained from George Scott Oldmixon, acting assistant surgeon U. S. 

 A., from the vicinity of Camp Baker, Mont., and from Dr. Charles A. 

 Hurt, acting assistant surgeon U. S. A., stationed at Fort Shaw, Mont., 

 from the Sun Eiver, tributary of the Missouri. A writer to Forest aud 

 Stream has found them plentiful in a tributary of the Yellowstone Eiver 

 near the Crow Indian agency. 



In the particular of its being found in restricted, isolated areas, its 

 habits resemble what is said to characterize Thymallus vulgaris of Eng- 



* Fred Mather has advanced the argument, in " Forest and Stream," from the fac t 

 that they do not eat each other, that "cannibalism" does not prevail among thorn, 

 they are likely to prove superior to the trout in their ability to produce a large stock 

 of fishes. 



+ Preliminary Report of the Geological Survey of Montana and Portions of the Adja- 

 cent Territories, being a fourth annual report of progress, by F. V. Hayden, United States 

 geologist, 1«71, p. 469. 



