FISH OF ONTARIO. 65 



D. , 10; A. , 9. Scales on lateral line, 225 to 235. 



The colouration is highly variable with age and locality. Upper parts 

 usually grayish, much mottled or barred with dark olive or black without 

 spots ; on the sides numerous pale brownish blotches encircle small scarlet 

 spots. Dorsal and caudal fins mottled with darker ; lower fins dusky with 

 a creamy white band anteriorly followed by a black streak ; belly of the 

 male often more or less red ; sea run fish are often plain bright silvery. 



Brook Trout were formerly found in all the clear spring streams, and 

 lakes fed by them, throughout the Province, but of late years, owing to 

 the pollution of our waters and excessive fishing, its range is restricted to 

 the unsettled districts, and except where it is artificially propagated and 

 preserved it has ceased to exist in southern Ontario. As a game and food 

 fish it is unexcelled, and angling for it is one of the most fascinating of 

 outdoor sports. The size attained by this fish depends largely upon its 

 habitat and food. In small streams it may mature at a length of six or 

 eight inches and a weight of only a few ounces, while in large bodies of 

 water, with an abundant food supply, they will reach eighteen inches or 

 more in length and a weight of from six to eight pounds. In Lake Nepi- 

 gon and some of the rivers of that famous district very large fish are still 

 commonly taken. 



In the cool days of late autumn the Brook Trout run up to the head 

 waters of the streams and there on the gravelly shallows deposit their 

 ova ; the spawning season extending from September in the north to 

 December in the south. The number of eggs produced depends upon the 

 age and size of the fish. Yearlings (that is, fish in their second year) will 

 produce from fifty to two hundred and fifty ova, while a large fish may 

 produce as many as fifteen hundred. The eggs are about three-sixteenths 

 of an inch in diameter and of a warm orange colour. The period of hatch- 

 ing depends upon the temperature of the water, ranging from thirty-two 

 days in water at 54 to one hundred and sixty-five days in water at 37. 



In the early part of the summer Trout frequent the ripples and shal- 

 lower parts of the streams, but as the temperature rises and hot weathe: 

 sets in they retire to the deeper pools or the vicinity of cold springs, when 

 they remain until the return of autumn starts them up stream again. 



Though commonly called Brook Trout, our fish is really a Charr and 

 is closely allied to, if not identical with, the famous Charr of North Britain 

 and the continent of Europe. 



Order HAPLOMI. (Pike-like Fishes.) 



Soft-rayed fishes with the mesocoracoid wanting; the coracoids nor- 

 mally developed, and the post-temporal normally attached to the cranium. 

 Parietal bones separated by the supraoccipital. Symplectic present. Oper- 

 cular bones well developed. Anterior vertebrae unmodified. Scapular 

 arch joined to the cranium by a post-temporal. Hypocoracoid and hyper- 

 coracoid separate with developed actinosts. Pharyngeal bones distinct, 

 the superior directed forward, three or four in number, the inferior not 



