146 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



" I love to see the man of care 



Take pleasure in a toy ; 

 I love to see him row or ride, 



And tread the grass with joy, 

 Or throw the circling salmon fly 



As lusty as a boy. 



"The road of life is hard enough, 



Bestrewn with slag and thorn \ 

 I would not mock the simplest joy 



That made it less forlorn, 

 But fill its evening path with flowers 



As fresh as those of morn." 



SECTION SECOND. 



THE BROOK TROUT. 



Where the tangled willowy thickets lave 

 Their -drooping tassels within the wave, 

 There lies a deep and darkened pool, 

 Whose waters are crystal clear and cool. 

 It is fed by many a gurgling fount, 

 That trickles from upland pasture and mount, 

 And when the deep shadows fall dense and dim, 

 The speckled trout delight to swim. 



The illustration on the opposite page is a copy of a trout 

 drawn by Walter M. Brackett, Esq., of Boston, as a contribu- 

 tion to this work. Of his gifts and inspirations, it is difficult 

 to decide whether he draws*trout best with a fly-rod or a pen- 

 cil. He is authority for either, and in painting fishes has no 

 superior. 



This book not being especially devoted to ichthyology- 

 could scarcely be improved by giving the genus and family 

 of each separate fish of which it treats ; but as the heading 

 indicates that the brook trout belongs to the genus Salmo, I 

 will add that it is still questionable with some ichthyologists 

 whether the trout is not the head of the genus, and the sal- 

 mon belongs- to the genus Trutta, or the tro,ut is distinct from 

 the genus /Salmo. Pliny confounded 'them, and the different 

 members of the genus Salmo were never assigned, their posi- 

 tion by the aid of science until within the present century. 



The scales of the trout are imperceptible to the naked eye; 



