FISHING IN MAINE. 149 



the more brilliant-colored 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 varie- 

 ties, if not species, among the inhabitants of this 

 stream; and the more I think the subject over now 

 the more thoroughly io 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 three years), I will endeavor 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 junc- 

 tion of their caudal fin with the body is more tapered 

 away. In coloring 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 other, there were 



