AMEBICAN CHAEES (BEOOK-TEOUT) 



various tributaries of the Sacramento. One of the sights of the 

 tourist at Soda Springs is the feeding of the Dolly Vardens. 

 Whether the train stops that the trout may be fed, or whether the 

 fish are fed to divert the passengers, I do not know, but an old 

 Chinaman is always on hand with some finely chopped meat 

 which he deals out to the trout at the station fountain where they 

 are confined to enthuse the angler. These Dolly Vardens are 

 absolutely tame and will eat from the hand. In a hotel at Santa 

 Cruz, California, I made the acquaintance of a number of tame 

 trout some years ago. They would leap from the water and take 

 a fly from my fingers — ^I mean a real fly, and their owner professed 

 to know the individuals. One particularly allowed him to take 

 it out of the water without protest. There are no more interest- 

 ing pets than the charrs. 



The Dolly Varden, which suggests Mr. Tappertit, is the sea- 

 trout of the North Pacific, as fontinalis is the sea-trout of 

 the Atlantic seaboard, and not to be confused with the sea-trout, 

 weakfish. Dolly Varden is also called the bull-trout, Oregon 

 charr, red-spotted trout, Malma, Golet, and as many more names 

 in as many places. While an enemy of the salmon, it is a game 

 fish of high degree, taking a fly with avidity. A number eight 

 hook, March Brown, Kamloops, Dun fly, and Eoyal Coachman 

 are recommended. This is also true in the ocean as in the rivers, 

 though it takes the fly more readily in the latter. 



The Dolly Varden charr varies as to weight to an extraordin- 

 ary degree. In fresh- water streams or lakes, as the Pend d'Oreille, 

 it may weigh six or seven ounces, but at the entrance to the Alas- 

 kan rivers ten pounders are taken. The Dolly Varden is now a 

 sea- trout and one of the great game fishes of the northern seas. 

 Jordan says, ' It is game and vigorous, takes the hook freely, 

 with a fiy or insect, a salmon egg, or a scarlet petal of some moun- 

 tain flower. . . . It is a good food fish. In Kamchatka the Dolly 

 Varden is baked in pies, deep pies like those sold in English eating- 

 houses, and in that form is surely good.' 



We find the charr in the far north represented by the Arctic 



327 



