116 SALMONID.E. 



fore more conducive to the health and condition of all that 

 inhabit it. 



Independently of Dekay's Salmo Erythrogaster, I find 

 mention made in the ''American Angler's Guide/' of the 

 Silver Trout, the Common Trout, the Common Trout of Mas- 

 sachusetts, the Black Trout, the Sea Trout, and the Hucho Trout, 

 although to none of these, except the last, is any scientific name 

 attached. 



I beg, however, to assure my readers, that there are no such 

 distinctions existing in nature. The Silver Trout, which is stated 

 to be found in almost all of our clear, swift-running northern 

 streams, and to weigh from one to fifteen pounds, is in no respect 

 a different fish from the Common Trout of Long Island ; nor 

 does that fish differ in any, the smallest, particular from the 

 Trout of Massachusetts, or of any other place in the United 

 States, where the Trout exists at all. 



I wish greatly, that the author of the " American Angler's 

 Guide " had given some authority for his statement, that this 

 fish is taken in this country up to fifteen pounds, or even up to 

 half that weight. I have myself some slight suspicion that such 

 is the case rarely, in the northern lakes — I do not mean the 

 great lakes — of New York and New England ; and that it is 

 there mistaken for some new species, or a variety of Lake Trout, 

 from which it differs far more, in all respects, than it does from 

 the true Salmon. 



I have, however, never been able to gain any authentic infor- 

 mation of any true Brook Trout having ever been taken in 

 Canada, or in the United States, above the weight of six 

 pounds; and that size is of so rare occurrence, that when one 



