FISHES. 635 



in the most extreme cases, that two species of the same genus 

 will ever breed together in a state of nature. If fish were 

 in the habit of doing so, there would be no end to the curious 

 varieties that we should meet with in every water. Wo 

 might see crosses between the perch and the ruffe, between 

 the roach and the bream, the chub and the dace, between 

 the common trout and the charr, and more especially be- 

 tween the two forms of our Wener lake trout. Yet I never 

 saw a net drawn in Sweden without being able at a glance to 

 name every fish that came to land ; and Hardin's remark as 

 to the lake trout in the Wener (and he has had opportuni- 

 ties of examining thousands of these fish fresh caught in the 

 Klar river), that ff we never see any transition from one to 

 the other, but can easily distinguish the two forms, even by 

 the short diagnosis which he has given," is a pretty good 

 proof that hybrids between these two forms or species (call 

 them which we will) do not exist. 



Salvelini, Nilss. Eodingar. Charr. 



95. S. ALPINUS, L. Lapland's Boding. The Charr. F. 



Is common in all the northern fell waters, more espe- 

 cially in Lapland, and appears to be identical with 8. 

 Alpinus of Scotland, although the Scotch charr arrive at 

 maturity at a size inferior to the Swedish charr. The usual 

 size of those we take in the Wermland lakes is under a foot, 

 but I have seen them considerably larger, and weighing 

 5 Ib. They appear to be as general feeders as the salmon 

 and trout, for here they will rise at the fly, and they will also 

 greedily take dew worms, grubs, and even small pieces of 

 fat pork. We principally take them in our fell lakes on 

 night lines baited with dew worms, or in fine trammels, and 

 we also catch a good many in the winter in holes cut through 

 the ice. I believe the southern limit of the charr in Sweden 

 is a small fell lake in Dalsland (about 58), at no very great 

 elevation above the sea, but, of course, the further north we 

 travel the more plentiful, as well as heavier, are these fish. 

 The habits of the charr are curious, and there seems even 

 still to be much mystery attached to them. They appear to 



