A New Cha/rr from British Columbia. 347 



ground in the very midst of a vast mountain-range. I can see 

 no other way to solve the problem save that of admitting that 

 some geological change has so modified and altered the general 

 conditions requisite for the growth of this plant in the sur- 

 rounding district, as to cause its extinction, whereas the small 

 spot of land on which it thrives remains unchanged. 



Perhaps I had better stop my theorizing, lest I get inex- 

 tricably entangled. IC Fools rush where angels fear to tread," 

 says the adage. Dr. Gunther for some time imagined the 

 specimens of this charr, which I brought home to the British 

 Museum, to be the young of one of the species of salmon com- 

 mon to the rivers of British Columbia ; and it was not until he 

 examined them carefully, and discovered the fish were females 

 containing fully-matured eggs, did he decide they were 

 charr, and the smallest known species. In compliment to the 

 discoverer, Dr. Gunther has named ' the new charr Fario 

 Lordii. 



I have given briefly a sketch of the general features of the 

 Fraser River, the stream in which I caught the charr, and of 

 the district through which it flows. How far my speculations 

 as regards this fish's isolated position may accord with the 

 opinions of those more conversant with the changes which 

 have from time to time altered the earth's surface than I am, I 

 do not know ; of the charr itself I have not deemed it neces- 

 sary to say more than was sufficient to put any reader in pos- 

 session of its most prominent characteristics. Minute descrip- 

 tions of structural peculiarities, by which it was known to be 

 a species new to science, would prove anything but amusing, 

 and of no practical value to any but the scientific icthyologist. 

 My end was to place its habits, and the singularity of its posi- 

 tion, in a pleasant guise, for I fully believe the general reader, 

 though looking upon a fish as only a fish, feels a pleasure in 

 knowing what it does, and how and where it lives in far away 

 lands. Whether or not I have succeeded in my endeavour my 

 reader must decide. 



