256 



FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



like the brook trout's ; its fins are like those of the brook 

 trout, even to the square or slightly lunate end of- tail. It has 

 the amber back and silver sides of such brook trout as have 

 access to the estuary food of the eggs of different fishes, the 

 young of herring, mackerel, smelt, spearing, shrimp, and even 

 the young of its own family and those of the salmon. Ow- 

 ing to this food, it becomes whiter and brighter than those 



THE SILVER OR SEA TROUT. Trutta Argentina or Trutta marina. 



trout which inhabit swampy waters impregnated and discol- 

 ored by decayed vegetable matter, where the trout are con- 

 fined without the power of visiting salt water. All the au- 

 thorities agree that the sea trout spawns at the heads of 

 fresh-water streams, ascending from the estuary in August, 

 and not returning until the following winter and spring. 

 All brook trout visit the heads of streams in autumn, and 

 return to the lower waters at the close of winter. Brook 

 trout of mountainous regions, where the streams run through 

 rocky defiles and mountain gorges, or through a sandy soil, 

 are always brighter than the black-mouthed trout of hemlock 

 and tamarack swamps. I am informed that, of fifteen trout- 

 lakes in a certain part of Scotland, there are not two lakes 

 which contain trout entirely similar. Even the famous Gil- 

 laroo trout, which some anglers suppose to have a gizzard, 

 has merely a lump in its stomach formed by the peculiarity 

 of the clay and other substances on which it feeds. In the 

 United States and the Canadas we have the salmon, the sal- 



