The Grayling Family itj 



collected at Winter Lake, near Fort Enterprise, 

 in British America. He named it signifer, or 

 " standard-bearer," in allusion to its tall, waving, 

 gayly-colored dorsal fin. It is presumably the 

 oldest and original species, and it is not unlikely 

 that it was transported to Michigan and Mon- 

 tana on an ice-field during the glacial period. 

 It is often called Bach's grayling, in honor of 

 an officer of that name who took the first one 

 on the fly, when with the Arctic expedition of 

 Sir John Franklin, in 1 819. It abounds in clear, 

 cold streams of the Mackenzie and Yukon prov- 

 inces in British America, and in Alaska up to 

 the Arctic Ocean. This boreal grayling has a 

 somewhat smaller head than the other species, 

 its upper outline being continuous with the 

 curve of the back. The mouth is small, extend- 

 ing to below the middle of the eye, which latter 

 is larger than in the other graylings, while its 

 dorsal fin is both longer and higher, and contains 

 a few more rays. The sides are purplish gray, 

 darker on the back; head brownish, a blue 

 mark on each side of the lower jaw ; the dorsal 

 fins dark gray, splashed with a lighter shade, 

 with rows of deep blue spots edged with red; 

 ventral fins with red and white stripes. Along 



