CHAPTER XXXII 



THE AMERICAN CHARR (BROOK-TROUT) 



' Amongst all your quaint readings, did you ever light upon Walton's 

 Complete Angler ? ' 



Charles Lamb to Coleridge. 



CHAELES HALLOCK, Dean of the American Anglers, whose 

 trout rod and reel of fifty years ago, hangs in a place of 

 honour in the Tuna Club, wrote many years since in the 

 American Angler : 



' No fulsome titles do I court, 

 Science holds no bribe for me, 

 Slavery for those who love it. 

 From nomenclature leave me free, 

 Yet they call me Salvehnus, 

 Can you fancy sin more heinous ? ' 



The brook-trout had been known as Sdlmo fontinalis, being so 

 named by Dr. Mitchell in 1814 ; but science had decided upon 

 Salvelinus fontinalis, and the famous poem was the protest 

 from the anglers, whom the veteran and distinguished angler, 

 who brought the Michigan grayling to the attention of Agassiz, 

 represented. The brook trout is the indigenous trout of the 

 Atlantic Coast States, and is a charr ; a fish that, doubtless, has 

 brought more joy and deHght to the weary soul of man than 

 any other animated! golace. Compared to the rainbow, the charr, 

 as it should be called, presents a striking appearance and is as 

 attractive and beautiful in its way. It is decorated with red spots 

 surrounded by whitish or gray circles, and possibly the most 

 striking feature is the dazzling white streak and colours on the 

 edge of the lower fins. The scales are very small and appear 



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