SALMONHXE IN AMERICAN WATERS. 339 



beautiful fish. How far to the north they can be found is 

 difficult to say, but of one thing we are certain, viz. that 

 all the streams and lakes of Labrador or the Hudson Bay 

 territory are abundantly supplied with them. It has been 

 observed by me, and frequently have I heard it commented 

 on by others, that the trout from the southern waters are 

 dull, listless, and much less brilliant in their hues than 

 those from the northern streams; at the same time the 

 artificial fly, so greedily taken in high latitudes, ceases to 

 be as attractive a lure as you progress south the fish of 

 some streams even refusing entirely to notice it. 



Doctor Bethune was, I believe, the first authority who 

 informed the public that the salmo fontinalis was a 

 different species from the salmo farrio, and afterwards 

 identified the former with the char of the lakes of the north 

 of England, Scotland, Norway, and Sweden. My own 

 impression is that he is correct. Professor Agassiz, one 

 of the first authorities, adopts, I think, this view, for he 

 uses the same Latin synonym, a proof at least to the 

 cseptical on this point that he did not consider them salmo 

 farrio. In the northern waters they take the fly greedily 

 and when hooked are very game. The largest I have 

 captured was nine pounds in weight ; this was a rara avis. 

 However, three and four pound fish are abundant in large 

 rivers; in inferior streams, of course they run much 

 smaller. 



The brilliancy of their scales is really marvellous, far 

 outrivalling the most exaggerated conceptions: for their 

 backs are a beautiful clear tortoise-shell, gradually 

 approaching a pale green to the lateral line, where a deep 



22 



