46 SALMONID^. 



times in the lakes of Hamilton County, in New York, which, 

 if it be not, as I believe it is, a gigantic casual variety of 

 the common Brook Trout {Salmo Fontinalis), is certainly a 

 distinct fish. 



A slight examination of the gills, teeth, and fins, will at once 

 settle this point. 



Of the Common Trout, but one species is as yet firmly ascer- 

 tained, unless the Red-bellied Trout {Salmo Erythrogaster), of 

 Dekay, prove to be a distinct form ; which I, for one, do not 

 at all believe. The Troutlet of that author is merely the young 

 of the Common Trout. 



Whether there exists a Salmon Trout or Silver Trout {Salmo 

 Trutta Marina) at all in American waters, apart from the 

 Salmon Peel, Grilse, and Common Trout, having access to salt 

 water, likewise remains to be proved, by the aid of those easy 

 methods of examination, the use of which I so earnestly desire 

 to impress upon my friends and fellow-sportsmen, not merely 

 as an aid to science, but as an immense addition to their own 

 individual gratification, when in pursuit of their finny prey by 

 the wild margin of some far woodland lake, or on the rocky 

 borders of some lone torrent of the wilderness. 



That many new species, entirely unsuspected and undescribed, 

 still remain to be found and recorded in our waters, I hold to 

 be undoubted ; when they will be discovered, or by whom, is 

 another question ; for I regret to say it, as yet the spirit of 

 science, and the desire to facilitate and assist the inquiries of 

 the man of letters, has scarcely penetrated the breast of the 

 American sportsman; and while, in England and on the 

 European continent, many the most distinguished correspondents 



