salmonidje. 43 



Much, however, yet remains to be done, as will be rendered evident 

 by the consideration that, even in so circumscribed a territory as Great 

 Britain, every water of which has been explored, and, it may be pre- 

 sumed, almost every fish submitted to the examination of scientific 

 men, great doubts yet exist concerning many forms, especially of this 

 family of Salmonidce, whether they are absolutely distinct, or merely 

 casual varieties, incapable of reproduction. 



In this country, with its boundless lakes and gigantic rivers — all 

 those to the northward and eastward, and all those feeding the tribu- 

 taries, or lying in the vast basin, of the St. Lawrence, as well as all 

 those on the western or Pacific coast, flowing down through the Sacra- 

 mento and Columbia, or wasting in the arid sands or wet morasses of 

 the Great Central Basin, all teeming with varieties, perhaps distinct 

 species of the Salmon — what a vast, what an unexplored field for the 

 sportsman, the naturalist ; and how doubly charming for him who unites 

 in one individual both capacities. But two distinct varieties of the 

 American Lake Trout, or at the most three, are as yet made out — for 

 I think it doubtful whether there be any positive grounds on which to 

 establish a distinction between the Salmo -Confinis of DeKay, known 

 in the Eastern States and New York as the common Lake Trout, and 

 the Salmo Amethystus of Mitchil, known as the Mackinaw Salmon. 

 The Salmo Siskawitz of Agassiz, discovered in the course of the past 

 summer in lakes Superior and Huron, is clearly a marked and perma- 

 nent species. That there is yet one other distinct species, the Sebago 

 Lake Trout, I fully believe, but only having heard of it by oral 

 description, I dare not take upon myself, without examination and 

 comparison, to decide the question. 



Again ; another huge fish is constantly mentioned as taken at times 

 in the lakes of Hamilton county, in New York, which, if it be not, as 

 I believe it is, a gigantic casual variety of the common Brook Trout, 

 Salmo Forvtinalis, is certainly a distinct fish. 



A slight examination of the gills, teeth, and fins, will at once settle 

 this point. 



Of the common Trout, but one species is as yet firmly ascertained, 

 unless the Red-bellied Trout, Salmo Erythrogashr, of DeKay, prove 

 to be a distinct form ; which I, for one, do not at all believe. The 

 Troutlet of that author is merely the young of the common Trout. 



