BRILLIANTLY-COLORED FISH. 325 



ence in such points the naturalist feels justified in forming 

 his decision. 



Day after day I have fished for these beauties; hundreds 

 have I taken ; and if the reader and I are like-minded, he 

 will vow that there is no more noble quarry to capture, or 

 one which, when taken, makes a more gallant struggle for 

 freedom and life. 



CHAR (BROOK-TROUT). 



The States of New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania 

 may be considered the southern limit on the American con- 

 tinent of the habitat of this brilliantly-colored, beautiful 

 fish. How far to the North they can be found is difficult 

 to say, but of one thing we are certain, viz., that all the 

 streams and lakes of Labrador or the Hudson Bay terri- 

 tory are abundantly supplied with them. It has been ob- 

 served by me, and frequently have I heard it commented 

 on by others, that the trout from the Southern waters are 

 dull, listless, and much less brilliant in their hues than those 

 from the Northern streams ; at the same time, the artifi- 

 cial fly, so greedily taken in high latitudes, ceases to be as 

 attractive a lure as you progress South, the fish of some 

 streams even refusing entirely to notice it. 



Doctor Bethune was, I believe, the first authority who 

 informed the public that the Salmo fontinalis was a dif- 

 ferent species from the Salmo farrio, and afterward identi- 

 fied the former with the char of the lakes of the north of 

 England, Scotland, Norway, and Sweden. My own impres- 

 sion is that he is correct. Professor Agassiz, one of the 

 first authorities, adopts, I think, this view, for he uses the 

 same Latin synonym a proof at least to the skeptical on 

 this point that he did not consider them Salmo farrio. In 

 Northern waters they take the fly greedily, and when hook- 

 ed are very game. The largest I have captured was nine 



