196 The Trout s of America 



from 1653, the year in which it was printed, to 

 the present time, about thirty-five hundred works 

 on angling, in various popular and edition-de- 

 luxe forms, have been published. 



With these records before them, angling stu- 

 dents are inclined to believe that "the speckled 

 fish " lured by the ancient Macedonians with an 

 artificial fly or bug, were either trout or closely 

 allied to that genus. Also, that the prophet 

 Isaiah in the use of the words, " they that cast 

 angles into the brooks," had reference to a prac- 

 tice identical or similar to that of modern fly- 

 fishing, more particularly, as it was reported by 

 a correspondent of The American Angler^ some 

 ten years ago, that he had found a varietal 

 form of the charr-trout in the upper waters of 

 the River Jordan. 



Certainly no fishes of the fresh waters, except 

 possibly the small cyprinoids, or carplike min- 

 nows, have a greater or more general distribu- 

 tion, above latitude 40°, than those of the salmon 

 family, particularly the so-called trouts. Wher- 

 ever water exists of a temperature not higher 

 than 65°, the trout will be found, or can be suc- 

 cessfully planted and increased. In swiftly run- 

 ning, highly aerated waters they have been known 



