RANGELEY LAKES, MAINE: FISHES, ANGUNG, AND FISH CULTURE. 533 



BLUEBACK TROUT {Salvelinus oquassa). 



A group of chars comprised in the genus Salvelinus and composed of a number of 

 nominal species completely encircles the Northern Hemisphere in its geographical range 

 and is restricted at the north only by perpetual ice. Its southward extension varies as 

 indicated by the recorded distribution of the nominal species but is essentially boreal or 

 alpine, occurring in the eastern United States in only a few isolated instances. At 

 the time the blueback was first scientifically described " no other species of char, except- 

 ing the common brook trout, was scientifically recognized in the eastern United States, 

 and since then only comparatively few specimens have found their way into collections, 

 and very little has been written about this species. Therefore, there is a dearth of 

 information regarding its relationships and habits, and most of that which is known is 

 scattered through sportsmen's journals. Forty years after Girard called the attention 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History to this fish Dr. David S. Jordan '* stated that 

 no specimens were on record from any waters in the United States other than the 

 Rangeley Lakes. Dr. Jordan seemed to consider it specifically identical with an Arctic 

 char described under the name of Salmo naresi by Dr. Giinther '^ and also with specimens 

 collected by Kumlien at Cumberland Gulf and identified by Dr. Bean as S. naresi. 



Fig. 17.— Blueback trout (Salvelinus oquassa). 



Dr. Jordan expressed the opinion that it was probably an Arctic fish that for some reason 

 kept its hold in the Rangeley chain but had become extinct in other lakes of northern 

 Maine, if it ever lived there. 



Later, however, Dr. Bean <* wrote that the blueback was certainly known only from 

 lakes and streams of western Maine, but thought that the justice of its identification 

 with Nares trout was open to question. In American Fishes (1888) G. Brown Goode 

 said that the blueback was probably a landlocked form of 5. stagnalis. 



The blueback is undoubtedly not only closely related to the previously mentioned 

 fish but to other nominal species of Arctic chars, as well as to the European saibling and 

 the later described Canadian red trout and golden trout of Sunapee Lake and other New 

 England waters. In fact, it has been suggested that all are specifically identical but 

 subject to ontogenetic variations. 



a Charles Girard, at the meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History of Oct. 20, 1852. Proceedings, Boston Society of 

 Natural History, vol. 4. 1853, p. 262. 



I> Forest and Stream, Dec. 14, 1882, p. 389. 



c Proceedings, Zoological Society of London, 1877, p. 476. 



d Forest and Stream, supplement, Apr. 4, 1889. 



