A New Charr from British Columbia. 345 



The stomachs of all tlie charr I opened were crammed with 

 the remains of wirjged insects, and in a few of them I observed 

 portions of the wings, together with other parts of the larger 

 dragon-flies (Eshna), an insect that in size nearly equalled its 

 devonrer. I did not see any remains of aquatic larva3 inter- 

 mixed with the other contents of the stomach, hence I am 

 disposed to think these charr during the summer take the 

 greater part of their food on the surface of the water. They 

 are the most greedy little gluttons conceivable, I could see 

 them dash at my flies two or three at a time, fighting and 

 struggling to get the first chance to seize it. 



The British Columbian charr is a particularly handsome 

 little fish. The body is more slender than is that of the trout, 

 and in colour olive- green, blushed with pink; the sides are 

 densety covered with minute white spots, as if the fish had been 

 sprinkled with whitewash ; all the fins are of a pinkish hue, 

 whilst the fish is alive, but turn to a dingy white immediately 

 after death. The lower jaw being a little shorter than the 

 upper, gives the head and snout (if I may use the word for 

 want of a better) a snub by appearance. As the eggs of the 

 female fish were nearly mature, there can be but little, if any, 

 doubt that these charr spawn in August, although I had no 

 opportunity to watch them as to their modes of depositing the 

 eggs ; and, singular to say, I never obtained a male fish. It is 

 a somewhat remarkable difference, as regards the Salmonidce of 

 North-western America, when compared in habits with our 

 own, that the former spawn in summer and early in the autumn, 

 whereas our salmon generally deposit their eggs in December. 

 But then we must not forget that during the summer the 

 North-western rivers are at their highest, from the enormous 

 inflow of water caused by the rapid melting of the snow, and 

 also that the temperature of the water is never, in the hottest 

 weather, more than a degree or two above the freezing point. If 

 the salmon did not ascend the rivers during the flood time, they 

 could not leap over the falls, or twist their way against the 

 rapids, that everywhere occur to intercept their progress 

 towards the spawning grounds. What are obstructions only 

 when the rivers are high, become impassable barriers when the 

 waters are at their lowest level. 



There is another curious feature in the habits of North- 

 western American salmon, one is at once struck with, which is, 

 salmon never take a bait of any kind after quitting the sea ; 

 whereas their near relatives, the charr, trout, and salmon-trout, 

 greedily take anything offered to them. My own opinion is, 

 that the salmon in North-western rivers never feed after they 

 abandon the salt water until they either perish or again reach 

 the ocean, and I say, without fear of contradiction, that four 



