SALMONID^. 



97 



some of the large lacustrine species, are migratory whenever it is in 

 their power to be so ; and run down to the sea, annually, for the 

 purpose of recruiting themselves after spawning, whence they return, 

 like the Salmon and Salmon Trout, in excellent condition, perfect 

 symmetry, and in the highest stage of external beauty. 



The non-migratory habit of the large lacustrine species does not 

 depend, in any degree, on their position or situation above impassable 

 cataracts, or in waters without outlets, although they are frequently 

 found under such circumstances, for they do not run down to the sea, 

 even when they have it in their power to do so ; as, for instance, in 

 Lake Ontario, where they are found abundantly; nor, on the other 

 hand, do they proceed far up the rivers, for the purpose of spawning, 

 being content to deposit their ova on the gravel beds of shoal water, 

 at the margins of their lakes, or at the mouths of the brooks which 

 discharge into them. 



Of the migratory species, the Brook Trout is one ; and when it is 

 in his power, he invariably descends to the sea, and returns to perpetu- 

 ate his species by depositing his spawn in the clearest, coolest, and 

 most limpid waters which he can find. There can be, I think, little 

 doubt that, like the Salmon, he returns to the streams in which he has 

 been bred. 



There are, doubtless, hundreds of mountain brooks throughout the 

 country, divided by impracticable falls, natural or artificial, from the 

 sea ; and although these teem with hordes of Brook Trout, they never 

 attain, in them, to any size ; the mature adults being scarcely larger 

 than the young fry, while they are still marked with the transverse 

 bandings of the Parr. The flesh of this little fish never attains the 

 rich cherry-colored tint of the Trout, in full season, but is of a pale 

 yellowish flesh-color, and has neither the richness nor the flavor of the 

 sea-run variety. That these swarms do not visit the sea, is not be- 

 cause they lack the will, but because they have not the power ; and 

 it is possible that the habit of running seaward being precluded gene- 

 ration after generation, the instinctive desire for it passes away in the 

 process of time. But that the degeneracy, both in size and flavor, 

 is caused by the inability to recruit their powers in the salt-water, is 

 rendered evident by the facts I have already quoted concerning the 

 falling off" of Salmon and Salmon Trout, both in size and appearance, 



