38 Fish Stories 



trout. The scales are larger than on any trout, and th( 

 are black spots, and blue spots on them, on a gray bac 

 ground. From the gray color came the fine old Englj 

 name of Grayling, as well as the German name of Aesch. 



The shape of the body and fin is like the trout, the lit 

 adipose fin is there, just the same as in the trout. The don 

 fin is, however, different. It is much higher than in a 

 trout, and with more rays. It rises up like a sail, and it 

 marked with sky-blue spots, which give the fish a disti 

 guished appearance when he is at home in his own waters. 



The grayling lives in swift, clear streams, not often 

 lakes. It calls for colder water than the trout, and so 

 range is farther to the north. Indeed, it is a rare fish 01 

 side the Arctic Circle. 



The different species of grayling are all very much alii 

 in looks as well as in habits. The common grayling 

 Europe ranges through northern England, Scotland, Sea 

 dinavia and Russia. There is a species of grayling spre 

 all over Siberia, but we know very little about this fish e 

 cept that it is very much like the European species and mi 

 way between that and the grayling of Alaska. 



Through the Yukon region of the great Northwest lh« 

 is a grayling very abundant in the right waters, and beari 

 the name of " the standard-bearer." In the old days afl 

 the great glacial ice, this fish extended to the eastward o\ 

 a much larger area, but the ice has melted away and the 

 are left three isolated colonies to the southeast of the mi 

 band. One of these colonies lives in certain streams, r 

 tably the Jordan and the Au Sable, in the sandy woods 

 the southern peninsula of Lake Michigan. In both th< 

 streams the grayling is growing scarce through the combin 

 evil influences of the lumberman and the trout-hog. In 1 

 northern peninsula there is another isolated little coloi 

 Let us call its stream the "Nameless River," and if ' 

 leave it so, the thyme-scented fish may increase to fill otl 

 rivers which are not nameless. 



