OF NATURAL HISTORY OP CANADA 41 



The Sea Trout 



Next to the salmon and ouananiche, the so-called American 

 brook trout is the cleanest fish that swims, and like the salmon it 

 will often, if the sea be near, partake for some time of a salt water 

 habitat, quickly growing lusty and strong on the abundance of 

 sea food found in the proximity of some estuarj', and rapidly 

 putting on the bright liverv' of silver which so distinguishes a freshly 

 run salmon. So brilliant is the new coloring, and so vast the 

 increase in size that it is difficult indeed to persuade the anglers 

 who have seen and captured these sea-run trout, that they are not 

 a distinct varietj*. Yet the difference is only in the mere immaterial 

 matters of size and coloring and in the acquired habit of anadromy; 

 so that these gorgeously arrayed sea-trout of the estuaries of some 

 of our rivers appear to bear the same relationship to the brook 

 trout of our inland waters that the Atlantic salmon does to the 

 ouananiche — a fresh-water species that has acquired the sea-going 

 habit. While specimens of these fish retain some of the brilliant 

 tints of jontinalis, others which have remained longer in brackish 

 water or have been further out to sea in search of richer food 

 acquire the silvery brillianc}' of the salmon and ouananiche. These 

 fishes are more or less plentiful in and off the mouth of the Saguenay 

 and also in and near the estuaries of many of our salmon rivers, 

 notably the Moisie, the Trinity, the Godbout, the Cascapedia, the 

 Ristigouche and others. Storer, in the Boston Journal of Natural 

 History in 1850 gave the name Salmo immaculatus to the sea trout 

 of the Lower St. Lawrence and others call it salmon trout. But 

 though its size, beauty and gameness may entitle it to a distinctive 

 name, the titles above menticned were preempted by others, and 

 what is really the sea run form of fonlinalis, — our well-kno^Ti 

 brock trout, — will probably never be given a more generally 

 accepted popular name than that of sea trout. 



The Brook Trout 



The so-called American brook-trout — Salvelinus fontinalis — 

 is — strange to say — not a trout at all, but a charr. The charrs are 

 distinguished from the true trout by the arrangement of the teeth, 

 on the vomer or little triangular bene in the roof of the mouth. 

 The true trout have the vomer usually well covered with teeth. 

 In the charrs, en the other hand, the teeth are found only on the 

 head of the vomer. It has been well said that "no higher praise 

 can be given to a salmonoid than to say it is a charr," for the 

 charrs are hy far the most active and handsome of this genus, 

 and live in the coldest, clearest and most secluded waters. It is 

 not easy to imagine a more beautiful object than the brook trout 

 with its richlj' vermiculated olive green back, often silver}' sides 

 and deep red belh' in the case of spawning males, the sides usually 

 spotted with crimson, purple and gold, and the duskj- lower fins 

 edged with white. Fontinalis has a wide geographical distribution 

 and quite an infinity of forms and coloring. These remarkable 

 variatioas tempt many observers to insist upon dividing them into 

 sub-species and varieties. 



