Brook Trout; Speckled Trout 



But as the trout streams everywhere came to be fished more 

 and more, the trout became smaller and smaller, until now it 

 is a rare trout that escapes the angler's fly until he has reached 

 a greater weight than a pound or two. 



The trout are rapidly disappearing from our streams through 

 the agency of the lumberman, manufacturer, and summer boarder. 

 In the words of the late Rev. Myron W. Reed, a noble man, 

 and an excellent angler, "This is the last generation of trout- 

 fishers. The children will not be able to find any. Already 

 there are well-trodden paths by every stream in Maine, New 

 York, and in Michigan. I know of but one river in North 

 America by the side of which you will find no paper collar or 

 other evidence ot civilization. It is the Nameless River. Not 

 that trout will cease to be. They will be hatched by machinery 

 and raised in ponds, and fattened on chopped liver, and grow 

 flabby and lose their spots. The trout of the restaurant will 

 not cease to be; but he is no more like the trout of the wild 

 river than the fat and songless reed-bird is like the bobolink. 

 Gross feeding and easy pond-life enervate and deprave him. 

 The trout that the children will know only by legend is the 

 gold-sprinkled living arrow of the white water; able to zig-zag 

 up the cataract; able to loiter in the rapids; whose dainty meat 

 is the glancing butterfly/' 



The brook trout is exceedingly variable and many local 

 varieties have been described. The following description will 

 apply well only to typical examples. 



Head 4^; depth 4^; D. 10; A. 9; scales 37-230-30; gillrakers 

 about 6+ 1 1. Body oblong, moderately compressed, not much 

 elevated; head large, but not very long, the snout bluntish, the 

 interorbital space rather broad; mouth large, the maxillary reach- 

 ing beyond orbit; eye large, somewhat above axis of body; cau- 

 dal fin slightly lunate in ^ie adult, forked in the young; adi- 

 pose fin small; pectoral and ventral fins not especially elongate. 

 Colour, back more or less mottled or barred with dark olive or 

 black, without spots; red spots on side rather smaller than the 

 pupil; dorsal and caudal fins mottled with darker; lower fins 

 dusky, with a pale, usually orange, band anteriorly, followed by 

 a darker one; belly in the male often more or less red; sea- 

 run individuals (the Canadian "salmon trout") are often nearly 

 plain bright silvery. 



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