HANDSOME FLSH. 357 



after our arrival, and all these various coloured fish 

 were designated by him as Salmo fontinalis. With so 

 great an authority I did not presume to differ ; still, 

 when he informed me that the Salmo fontinalis of 

 American waters was identical with our home brook 

 trout, I thought that the lively game little beauty of 

 our mountain streams had wonderfully changed in 

 colour and appearance from his trans-Atlantic brother, 

 or vice versa. As the weather began to get warmer, 

 the more brilliant-coloured specimens became scarcer, 

 and ultimately ceased to be taken in the river. This 

 circumstance induced me further to think that there 

 was some difference either in habits or choice of haunts 

 which their more plain- clothed relatives did not affect, 

 and that at least there were different varieties, if not 

 species, among the inhabitants of this stream; and 

 the more I think the subject over now, the more 

 thoroughly do I feel convinced that the name of Salmo 

 fontinalis has been frequently applied to what is, in 

 reality, our red-bellied char. Memory is often not to 

 be depended upon, but with the assistance of a few 

 notes (the lapse of time not being more than a few 

 years), I will endeavour to tell the differences that I 

 most particularly observed. In outline of shape, what 

 I suppose to be the red-bellied char much resembled a 

 well-fed trout, except that the first dorsal fin is 

 nearer the head, the caudal fin has a wider spread at 

 its termination, and the junction of the caudal fin with 

 the body is more tapered away. In colouring, the 

 back was of a deep mackerel green, interwoven with 

 irregular darker waving lines, while the belly was as 

 brilliant as burnished copper. Above, where the green 

 of the back and red of the stomach ran into each 



