BROOK TROUT. 
495 
tracks, and their cries were distinctly heard in a tnicket ; but it 
seems the animals were not attacked. Perhaps the men who fol- 
lowed them were not armed. What a moment it must have been, 
when, alone in the forest, the poor hunter fell, and those fierce 
beasts of prey both leaped upon him ! 
Saturday, 10 th. — Pleasant day, though coldish. We have 
had no very severe days, and no deep snow, since the first week 
in January. The season is considered a decidedly cold one ; but 
it has been comparatively much more severe in other parts of the 
country than in our own neighborhood. Our deepest snow has 
been eisrhteen inches ; we have known it three feet on a level. 
Monday, I2th. — It is snowing this morning. Brook Trout 
brought to the house. They are found in many of our smaller 
streams. We received a very fine mess not long since ; the two 
largest weighed very nearly a pound ; there are but few of that 
size now left in our waters. It would seem that our Brook Trout 
is entirely a northern fish. Dr. De Kay observes that he has 
never heard of its being found nortli of the forty-seventh or south 
of the fortieth parallel of latitude. In Ohio, it is only known in 
two small streams. There is another variety, the Red-bellied 
Trout, found in our northern mountain streams, a large and beau- 
tiful fish, of a dark olive-green color, spotted with salmon color 
and crimson. The flesh is said to be also of a bright red, ap- 
proaching carmine. 
Tuesday, Idtli. — Fine day. The good people are beginning to 
use the lal^e for sleighs : it is now crossed by several roads, run- 
ning in different directions. In passing along this afternoon, and 
looking at the foot-prints of horses, oxen, and dogs, on the snow- 
covered ice, we were reminded what different tracks were seen 
