CHARR. 
845 
lighter coloration, pale gray on the sides, light orange 
on the belly; and when the Charr go out to sea, as 
mentioned above, their sides adopt the silvery lustre 
of the Salmon, on which ground the red spots are 
hardly discernible, and sometimes, at least in the great 
lakes, the ventral side is almost white. 
These forms, as well as the Salmons, wear a Parr 
dress during youth, most nearly resembling the pale 
coloration just mentioned, but distinguished on the 
sides of the body by about 13 — 15 transverse bands 
of the darker dorsal colour, rounded below. 
In coloration European Charr generally differ from 
American, which are most often, but by no means 
constantly, marked on the back and the dorsal and 
caudal fins with vermiculate transverse spots and stripes. 
In Scandinavia and the rest of Europe to the south, 
the Charr strictly belong to the mountain lakes, and 
hardly ever take up their abode in running water 0 . 
In the Arctic regions — south to Northern Helgeland 
in Norway * * * 6 — they are marine fishes which, like the 
Salmons, ascend the rivers to spawn. In Lapland they 
rank among the most common and most important 
fishes, and the form which occurs there goes south in 
the interior to Dalsland, Bohuslan, and Wester Goth- 
land 0 '. But their range does not extend so high in the 
mountain tracts as that of the Trout d , with which they 
are often confounded, and they are probably not found 
above the birch -region®. Whether the above-mentioned 
large Charr that are met with in the greatest lakes of 
Lapland, preserve the form-characters of the Northern 
Charr, is unknown to us. The other large Scandina- 
vian form has its true and best known haunts in Lake 
Wetter, but is also met with to the north at least in 
Lakes Storsjo and Hemsjo (Jemtland). East of Lake 
Wetter Boheman found the Charr in 1836 in Lake 
Oren. According to Nilsson and Widegren the Charr 
inhabits Lake Sommen in Oster Gothland, but further 
south in Sweden it is unknown. Strange to say, it is 
wanting in Lake Wener, as well as in Lakes Malar 
and Hjelmar. It evidently prefers clear lakes with 
water of a low temperature — though as yet we have 
not sufficient observations on this head to state a fixed 
number of degrees — , and the singular features in its 
geographical range — for instance, its occurrence in 
certain lakes, and absence in others situated near them 
and apparently of the same nature — cannot be ex- 
plained until we have trustworthy information as to the 
temperature of our lakes and the food which they offer 
the Charr. That its aversion to turbid water is not 
unconquerable, we see on the coast of Spitsbergen, 
where Charr are most plentiful off the mouths of clayey 
glacial rivers. But it is undeniable that water of a 
high temperature, whether it be in the sea into which 
the river inhabited by the Charr flows, or in lakes on 
the lower course of the stream, stops the progress of 
the Charr like a dam 7 . 
According to the reports sent in to the Swedish 
Fisheries Commission of 1881 — 83 the Charr is want- 
ing in the Governments of Stockholm, Upsala, Soder- 
manland, Kronoberg, Kalmar, Gothland, Blekinge, Kri- 
stianstad, Malmohus, and Halland. In addition to Lake 
Wener, the lower and southern districts of Sweden, 
generally speaking, are thus without its geographical 
range. It does not enter the Baltic, and is at least 
rare in the lowlands on the Gulf of Bothnia. In the 
valley of the Tornea Elf, for example, it does not de- 
scend below Juckasjarvi. 
In Norway the Charr is common, according to 
Collett, in the lakes within the Government of Bergen, 
less common in the Government of Trondhjem, and 
occurs only in a few lakes within the Government of 
Christiania. Lilljeborg found it often 6 ' in the moun- 
tain lakes of Central Norway, where it is commonly 
called Iioe. The pale-bellied individuals are known as 
Blekroe. Its manner of life in the north of Norway 
and off the coast has already been noticed. Its habits 
are similar on the Murman Coast and in Finnish Lapp- 
mark; but its strict range in Finland is confined, ac- 
a In this respect the European Charr is somewhat different from the true Salmons; but in North America a distinction is drawn be- 
tween two varieties of Charr, the Lake Trout ( Salmo namaycusK), which attains a greater size than our Charr, but has the same habits, and 
the Brook or Speckled Trout ( S . fontinalis'), which does indeed occur in lakes, but commonly spawns in streams. 
6 Collett, 1879, 1. c. 
c Lake Nedsjo in Bollebygd Hundred, see Malm, 1. c. 
d Olsson, 1 . c. 
e Nilsson, Skand. Fn., 1 . c. 
f “South of New York they are effectually land-locked by the prevailing high temperature of the lowland streams, and are never able 
to gain access to salt or brackish water”. Brown-Goode, The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States , Sect. I, p. 502. 
g dfvers. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 1844, p. 213. 
