BROOK TROUT. 121 



The non-migratory habit of the large lacustrine species does 

 not depend, in any degree, on their position or situation above 

 impassable cataracts, or in waters without outlets, although 

 they are frequently found under such circumstances, for they 

 do not run down to the sea, even when they have it in their 

 power to do so ; as, for instance, in Lake Ontario, where they 

 are found abundantly ; nor, on the other hand, do they proceed 

 far up the rivers, for the purpose of spawning, being content to 

 deposit their ova on the gravel beds of shoal water, at the 

 margins of their lakes, or at the mouths of the brooks which 

 discharge into them. 



Of the migratory species the Brook Trout is one ; and when 

 it is in his power, he invariably descends to the sea, and returns 

 to perpetuate his species by depositing his spawn in the clearest, 

 coolest, and most limpid waters which he can find. There can 

 be, I think, little doubt that, like the Salmon, he returns to the 

 streams in which he has been bred. 



There are, doubtless, hundreds of mountain brooks through- 

 out the country, divided by impracticable falls, natural or arti- 

 ficial, from the sea ; and, although these teem with hordes of 

 Brook Trout, they never attain, in them, to any size; the 

 mature adults being scarcely larger than the young fry, while 

 they are still marked with the transverse bandings of the Parr. 

 The flesh of this little fish never attains the rich cherry-coloured 

 tint of the Trout, in full season, but is of a pale yellowish flesh- 

 colour, and has neither the richness nor the flavour of the sea- 

 run variety. That these swarms do not visit the sea, is not 

 because they lack the will, but because they have not the 

 power; and, it is possible that the habit of running seaward 



