The Grayling 



Milner discovered and named it montanus, 

 in 1872. So now we have the three species, 

 Thymallus signifer, Thymallus tri-color, 

 and Thymallus montanus. The generic 

 name Thymallus is a very ancient one, and 

 was bestowed originally because an odor of 

 thyme was said by the Greeks to emanate 

 from a freshly caught grayling. In our 

 day the odor of thyme is not apparent, 

 though when just out of the water it diffuses 

 a faint and pleasant odor not unlike that 

 from a freshly cut cucumber. 



The structural differences between the Morphology of 

 three American graylings are so slight that the 

 they would be scarcely recognized by the 

 lay angler, therefore a general description 

 will probably answer. It is a slender, grace- 

 fully formed fish, with a body about five 

 times longer than its depth, and rather thin, 

 or compressed, on the order of the lake her- 

 ring or cisco, or the Rocky Mountain white- 

 fish. From this slight resemblance there is 

 an erroneous notion quite current in Mon- 

 tana that it is a cross between the whitefish 

 and the trout. 



47 



