THE BROOK TROUT 



A fisherman who dissipates much of his 

 life in the practice of the law deplores his 

 inability to sort out the Malacopterygian 

 Teleosteans and to keep them tidily under 

 his hand. He suggests that trivial preoccu- 

 pations may have a like effect in other 

 quarters as to this so important head of 

 knowledge : wherefore, and to counter an 

 ignorance thus perilous, he invites a brief 

 addendum about the brook trout and his 

 kin. 



One really knowing anything of the sub- 

 ject would approach it with hesitation and 

 distrust: this writer is unembarrassed. Re- 

 porting only the views of others, he barely 

 takes the liberty of throwing in some obser- 

 vations to arouse a wholesome spirit of 

 controversy. 



The first of these may well be that no 

 two classifications are quite in accord. He 

 has but accepted a recent one. The best in- 

 formed seem the least confident and the 

 readiest to admit that the last word has yet 

 to be said. Once the tendency was towards 

 the multiplication of species and sub-spec- 

 ies; at present it is in the opposite direction. 

 259 



