110 PHYSOSTOMI. 



to have these varying between 59 and 63, bnt as in type examples of two forms in 

 the British Musenm we are informed from 59 to 62 were present, the existence of 

 an additional one in a specimen of 8- colii can therefore hardly be a reason for 

 institnting an additional species (see page 55). 



The number of coecal appendages. — The extreme variation in all the foregoing 

 six species is given at from 36 to 52, while we are informed that in 8. Willughbii 

 from 32* to 44 are present in examples in the National Collection. I have 

 already shown how inconstant are the nnmbers of these appendages among the 

 Salmonidae (see page 56). 



If we seek to investigate the history of these fishes from the earliest times, 

 and inqnire of geologists as to what account they are able to fnrnish, we are told 

 that the Salmonidce are a comparatively recently evolved family, their very 

 existence in a fossil form (if we exclude Mallotus) being unknown. Mr. Symonds, 

 in the last edition of the Records of the Rocks, observes : "I have fished in 

 and visited many of the lakes in Great Britain, where the charr, Coregoni, and 

 great lake-trout (Salmo ferox) are known, but I never saw one in which they still 

 exist that is not either a glacier lake, or rock basin, or that is not dammed or 

 otherwise surrounded by glacial moraine matter. They are also inhabitants of the 

 lakes of Sweden and Norway, which everywhere bear traces of the glacial epoch 

 and its close, and seem to me to be (like the Alpine plants that still linger among 

 the mountains) fishes of that colder period when the last of the glaciers still hung 

 to the combes of the Highlands of Scotland and Wales." 



Doubtless the charr prefer the colder north to the more temperate portions 

 of the globe ; and moderately still waters. Among the fishes brought by the 

 late Arctic expeditions were examples of charr very similar, if not identical with 

 British forms, thus seeming to show a near relationship one with the other. 

 While in Nordenskiold's Arctic voyages it is recorded that the young of 8. alpinus, 

 three inches long, were captured on the eastern side of Wijde Bay in June, 1861. 



Mr. Brooke, writing respecting a species of Irish charr, observes that " Lough 

 Eske (where it was captured) was the crater of an extinct volcano, as suggested 

 by Dr. Wilde, of Dublin." 



Many and various reasons have been advanced by different persons against the 

 enactment of laws for the protection of fishes, especially charr, and I observe 

 that Mr. Houghton, in his British Freshwater Fishes, considers that " the 

 extension of the Salmon Act to charr is a great mistake. The only time — and 

 that time is of short duration — when charr can be taken in any numbers is in 

 October and November, when they leave their deep-water haunts for the 

 shallower parts of the lakes. The destructive agency of man, limited as it is to 

 one or two months' duration, could have but little effect in causing a diminution 

 of the species in the extensive depths of our great lakes, which, for five-sixths of 

 the year, provide safe and unassailable harbours." On the other hand it has been 

 asserted that the charr of Lough Neagh, in Ireland, have been exterminated by 

 man within the last forty years, showing his power, when unchecked by legislative 

 enactments, of effectually accomplishing such a destruction. In Land and Water 

 for December 27, 1879, is an interesting article upon the result following the 

 preservation of the Llanberris charr. Two large freshwater lakes exist, joined 

 together by a small river. In November the charr pass up this stream to the 

 lower portion of the upper lake to spawn, having accomplished which they return 

 to the lower lake. The proprietors, acting on the principle enunciated above, 

 used to net them at the spawning period ; but the Salmon Act of 1873 prohibited 

 the capture of these fish between October 1 and February 1, so the killing of these 

 spawning charr has been stopped. Prior to 1874 they were only to be seen here 

 and there in shoals of a score or so, whereas now they may be observed in 

 hundreds, averaging about nine fish to 2 lb. weight. In September, 1879, an 

 angler, with a worm bait, captured in one evening 23 lb. weight of charr, and as 

 soon as the news got abroad many others took to angling for these fish, and all 



* I have examined one from the Lakes which only had 28. 



