344 A New Charr from British Columbia. 



The flies we must use are small, and of bright, gaudy colours. 

 My first cast results only in a rise; my second is attended 

 with better success — a fine speckled trout, the Oregon- 

 brook trout (Fario stellatus) lies flapping on the grass. The 

 next throw is into a comparatively still pool ; with a gentle 

 splash a small fish seizes the fly, and finds itself suddenly in 

 the hands of a naturalist ; I examine it carefully, and discover 

 that I have a charr ; more than this, it was a female fish, and 

 she was full of eggs, others were soon taken ; but in all the 

 roe and milts were near to maturity, the largest charr did 

 not exceed six inches in length, and there could be no doubt 

 the fish were adult, and fully grown. I had frequently fished 

 in the lakes on Vancouver's Island, as well as in other lakes 

 and streams (I may mention the Sumass, Chilukweyuk, and 

 Sweltza, as examples ; these are mountain lakes, with streams 

 flowing out from them), at lower levels along the spurs of this, 

 the Cascade range of mountains ; but in no single instance 

 did I ever catch a charr. 



The three lakes I have named fulfil every condition of 

 the Cumberland, Swiss, and other lakes in which our charr 

 (Salmo salvelinus) are usually taken, and one woald have 

 naturally supposed that if charr were to be found at all, they 

 would have been in localities similar to those they favour and 

 frequent in other countries. Not so, however ; here is the only 

 place (as far as my experience goes) where charr are to be 

 obtained in British Columbia. The first thing which occurs to us 

 as being unusual as regards this charr is, that there is no lake, 

 nor even still water, near to where it resides, and not far above 

 the spot on which we are standing, is the source of the river 

 (about 7000 feet above the sea level), owing its origin to the 

 melting snows, of course the water is at all times intensely cold. 

 In the second place, we have tracked the river courses from the 

 sea, and it is quite clear this tiny charr could never have come 

 from the lower part of the river; it must have quitted its egg 

 near to where I caught it, and have lived there to a mature age, 

 and in its turn is now ready to deposit eggs for the produc- 

 tion of another family. Even supposing this small and delicate 

 charr risked a plunge over the cascade we peeped at, and 

 survived the tumble, it is hardly conceivable that it would 

 escape the thousand and one dangers which would beset it ; 

 and if it did, by no possibility could it ever return again to 

 this part of the river. In the third place, the habit of leaving 

 the lakes at the spawning time common to all our charr 

 (according to Yarrell) can never be indulged in by this British 

 Columbian species, because it is completely imprisoned in a 

 few miles of river. The barrier on one side is a waterfall ; on 

 the other the source of the stream. 



