12 THE AMERICAN TROUT. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE AMERICAN TROUT. 



THE Brook Trout The New York Charr Salmo 

 fontinalis. Salmon tribe ; ventral s in abdomen, rays 

 soft. 



The shoulder and first back fins have each eleven rays ; 

 the second back fin is mere fatty matter and rayless, the 

 characteristic of the salmon tribe ; the ventral has eight, 

 the anal fifteen, and the tail nineteen rays. The back is 

 dusky green, mottled with yellow spots ; growing lighter 

 on the sides, where the spots have irregularly a beau- 

 tiful blue or carmine speck in the centre; the belly 

 is silver white, with a roseate tinge as it fades into the 

 darker colors of the sides ; the shoulder fins are yellowish 

 at the base, the ventrals yellowish red, the anal reddish, 

 and in all the rays are dusky. The gill-covers have no 

 defined spots. 



' The body is covered with delicate scales that will 

 escape all but the strictest observation. The teeth are 

 on the tongue and throat, but none on the roof of the 

 mouth discernible to the naked eye; there is an outer 

 row on the lower jaw, and an inner and outer row on the 

 upper jaw. This fish is so well known to the public from 

 its extensive distribution through the northern States, 

 and so totally dissimilar from the Perch and Bass, mis- 



