DISPERSION OF FRESH-WATER FISHES. 83 



THE DISPERSION OF FRESH-WATER 

 FISHES. 



WHEN I was a boy and went fishing in the 

 brooks of western New York, I noticed 

 that the different streams did not always have the 

 same kinds of fishes in them. Two streams in 

 particular in Wyoming County, not far from my 

 father's farm, engaged in this respect my special 

 attention. Their sources are not far apart, and 

 they flow in opposite directions, on opposite sides 

 of a low ridge, an old glacial moraine, something 

 more than a mile across. The Oatka Creek flows 

 northward from this ridge, while the East Coy 

 runs toward the southeasjt on the other side of it, 

 both flowing ultimately into the same river, the 

 Genesee. 



It does not require a very careful observer to 

 see that in these two streams the fishes are not 

 quite the same. The streams themselves are simi- 

 lar enough. In each the waters are clear and fed 

 by springs. Each flows over gravel and clay, 

 through alluvial meadows, in many windings, and 

 with elms and alders " in all its elbows." In both 

 streams we were sure of finding Trout, 1 and in one 

 of them the trout are still abundant. In both we 

 used to catch the Brook Chub, 2 or, as we called 



1 Salvdimis fontinalis Mitchill. 



2 Semotilus atromaculatus Mitchill. 



