GILPIN ON THE TROUT AND SALMON. Sl 



or seventy fatlioms. There can be little doubt that he also feeds 

 upon smaller living fishes as well as flies and larva. 



One must witness a score or two of these fine fish for sale in the 

 Halifax fish market dripping fresh from thfe ocean, before they can 

 truly appreciate their magnificent proportions, their great depth and 

 thickness, and great round backs swelling into so massive a foundation 

 for tlieir huge tails, — the clear silver laced with blue of the sides, 

 the opal tints flickering around their bellies, or the fleeting lavender 

 of their fast stiffening fins. Those figured by Yarrell and Couch, by 

 Dekay, and even Agassiz, a Halifax fisherman would not allow upon 

 his stall. The extreme length and want of depth would condemn 

 it at once as a spent fish. Of tlie many stories of marvellous cap- 

 tures of these fi.sh, the best and certainly the truest is the following, 

 which happened in my own time and neighborhood: — Mr. Baillie, 

 grandson of the " Old Frontier Missionary," was fishing the " Gen- 

 eral Bridge river " up stream for trout, standing above his knees in 

 Avater with an old negro named Peter Prince at his elbow. In the 

 very act of casting a trout fly, he saw, as is very usual for them, a 

 large salmon lingering in a deep hole a few yards from him. The 

 sun favored him, throwing his shadow behiiid. To remain motion- 

 less, to pull out a spare hook and pen knife, and with a bit of his 

 old hat, and some of the grey old negro's wool to make a salmon 

 flv, then and there, he and the negro standing in the running stream 

 like statues, and pj-esently to land a fine salmon was the work 

 of but a few moments. This fly must have been the original of 

 Norris's killinaf " silver o'rav." 



Salmo Fontinalis — Mitchell — Bkook Trout. 



The description of this fish as usually seen in the lakes about Halifax, would 

 be — in length from ten to eift;hteen inches, and weight from half a pound to 

 two pounds — though these measurements are often exceeded or lessened. The 

 outline of back starting from a rather round and blunt nose rises gradually to 

 the insertion of the dorsal fin, about two lengths of the head from the nose ; it 

 then gradually declines to the adipose fin, about a length and a half from that 

 runs straight to form a strong base for the tail. The breadth of the tail is 

 about ecpial to the length of the head. Below, the outline runs nearly straight 

 from the tail to the anal fin, from thence it falls rapidly to form a line more or 

 less convex (as the fish is in or out of season), and returns to the head. The 

 intermaxillary very short, the maxillary long with the free end sharp pointed, 

 the posterior end of the opercle is more angular than in the the S. Salar, the 

 lower jaw shorter than upper vdien closed, — appearing longer when open. 



