346 A New Gharr from British Columbia. 



out of every six salmon die which ascend the river for the 

 purpose of spawning in its tributaries. So vast, during the 

 winter months, is the accumulation of dead salmon in the small 

 streams, that to live anywhere near to them is next to impos- 

 sible. Rotting fish hang from every spray that dips into the 

 water ; rotting fish lodge in every eddy, and jam against the 

 irregularities of the rocks and boulders ; rotting fish lie stranded 

 on every sand-spit ; and rotting fish are day and night drift- 

 ing onwards towards the sea. Why such a waste of valuable 

 food is permitted by the all-wise God who bountifully sent it, 

 no one can tell ; but that it is intended to serve some wise and 

 useful purpose, although to us inscrutable, is indisputable. 



To return to our little charr, it is equally puzzling to me to 

 account for the presence of this member of the Salmonidce in a 

 mountain stream, shut in betwixt two barriers, and, as far as I 

 know, it is not to be found in any other part of British Columbia. 

 I am almost afraid to venture a suggestion, lest some geologist 

 pounce down upon me. It is disagreeable, to say the least ot 

 it, to find oneself tumbled over, and sent floundering amidst the 

 fragments of a pet theory, by some person who happens to be 

 more learned in matters geological. 1 have my own opinions, 

 however, and I mean to state them, and if I am snuffed out and 

 utterly extinguished, so to speak, then so be it ; there must 

 be a right side and a wrong side to this question as there is to 

 every other, and if I am groping my way along the latter, why 

 the sooner somebody comes to the rescue the better. 



I cannot help thinking this isolated charr might possibly 

 have lived in a lake at some remote period, the bottom of 

 which, now high and dry, we rode across when we left Fort 

 Hope. Upheaval of the land drained the lake of its water, 

 and as the mountains were tilted up higher and higher, a few 

 charr might have either followed up the course of this stream, 

 then a tributary to the lake, or they may have been lifted up 

 bodily by a sudden convulsion, such as caused the cliff of rock 

 over which the stream now finds its way, and constitutes an 

 impassable barrier to the ascent or descent of fish. The other 

 charr, after the lake was drained, perished, it may be, suddenly ; 

 or if they escaped, have given place, during the course of ages, 

 to some stronger race of fishes " in the struggle for existence." 

 Only in this way can I account for so singular a case of isola- 

 tion as shown us in this British Columbian charr. Bearing 

 upon, and in some degree, too, confirmatory of this theory, is 

 another fact. Near by this stream wherein the charr live, 

 rhododendrons grow, and in no other part of the Cascade 

 Mountains were these plants discovered. How, then, can we 

 account for this ? Here wo find a group of flowering shrubs 

 completely islanded, if I may so express it, on a small spot of 



