DISPERSION OF FRESH-WATER FISHES. 8 3 
THE DISPERSION OF FRESH-WATER 
FISHES, 
VW = I was a boy and went fishing in the 
brooks of western New York, I noticed 
that the different streams did not always have the 
same kinds of fishes in them. Two streams in 
particular in Wyoming County, not far from my 
father’s farm, engaged in this respect my special 
attention. Their sources are not far apart, and 
they flow in opposite directions, on opposite sides 
of a low ridge, — an old glacial moraine, something 
more than a mile across. The Oatka Creek flows 
northward from this ridge, while the East Coy 
runs toward the southeast on the other side of it, 
both flowing ultimately into the same river, the 
Genesee. 
It does not require a very careful observer to 
see that in these two streams the fishes are not 
quite the same. The streams themselves are simi- 
lar enough. In each the waters are clear and fed 
by springs. Each flows over gravel and clay, 
through alluvial meadows, in many windings, and 
with elms and alders “in all its elbows.” In both 
streams we were sure of finding Trout,! and in one 
of them the trout are still abundant. In both we 
used to catch the Brook Chub,? or, as we called 
1 Salvelinus fontinalis Mitchill. 
2 Semotilus atromaculatus Mitchill. 
