40 SEA TROUT. 



endeavor to discover new species and originate new 

 names, has caught at the slightest distinctions in appear- 

 ance, which are often only due to food or water, and has 

 immediately dubbed the fish a knight and endowed him 

 with a new name frequently some horrible Latin per- 

 version of his own. Real distinctions are those perma- 

 nent ones that no change of food and water can affect, 



O ' 



nor the chance influence of a few shell-fish or a muddy 

 bottom. There are distinctions between these trout and 

 brook trout, of color, comparative size of different parts 

 of the body, formation of the head and fins ; but not 

 more so than one often meets with in fishing any of the 

 streams of Long Island that communicate with the sea, 

 or even in the different streams of the wild woods. The 

 sea trout of Canada certainly do far excel the ordinary 

 trout in size, being taken, with the fly, weighing nine 

 pounds, and the ordinary average being from three to 

 four; but otherwise they seem to have no permanent 

 peculiarity that should distinguish them from the com- 

 mon brook trout. All other distinctions fade after the 

 trout have been for some time in fresh water, and a late 

 run of sea trout differs far more from those which have 

 ascended the streams a month earlier than the latter 

 from the brook trout. Indeed, some sea trout have 

 become domesticated in the fresh water, and never 

 returning to the sea, have settled down, although often 

 f great size, into the ordinary trout. 



In Stump Pond, on Long Island, and the adjacent 

 waters, are four different varieties of trout: the old- 

 fashioned Stump Pond Trout, * with a black mouth, a 

 long, thin body, a big head, and a wolfish, hungry 



* The old Stump Pond trout bas of late years wholly disappeared. 



