78 
KENDALL: NEW ENGLAND CHARRS. 
describes two or three varieties, the most contrastively striking of which was his "Cedar Tree” 
Trout, receiving its name from Cedar Tree point, near which it spawned. This was considered 
more different from the common run of trout than the Landlocked Salmon is from the Penobscot 
Salmon, and he suggested that ultimately it would be considered a distinct species. Mr. Rich 
later stated that he sent one, together wdth his opinion regarding it, to Professor Agassiz, who 
pronounced it nothing else than a "simon pure Salmo fontinalis.” It was stated to be a thin, 
flat, short fish with very highly colored sides, which, when red, were very red, and when black, 
white or brown, intensely so; this appearance giving the deceptive impression of a greater than 
the actual weight. 
Contrasted with the Cedar-Tree Trout was the “long, round, light-colored, almost silvery, 
trout, with white flesh, in deep and large waters.” Another of this type of about three fourths 
of a pound in weight, with yellow flesh, would be found during the last of August and first of 
September congregated at the mouths of certain brooks. Still another of the same form but 
very plump and with red flesh is found at some other places. In the spawning season, October 
and November, in Beama Stream, Metallic Brook, and the inlet of Richardson Ponds, generally 
far up in the small headwaters in the dense woods, was said to be still another highly colored 
variety, with a stripe of white on each fin, which often betrayed the presence of the fish in the 
black moss of running stony brooks. These ran from about three ounces to a pound in weight 
and were of the most beautiful of all in appearance, but no better, if as good, for the table. 
Among these, he said, were found both white- and red-meated fish. He went on to say that in 
many years of winter fishing very few of this kind of trout were caught in the lakes and ponds 
and were seldom taken except on their spawning grounds, and therefore concluded that they 
did not mix with the long, round kind but probably had some special location of their own. 
Continued residence of trout in one locality modifies the appearance of the fish according 
to the conditiofls obtaining in the locality. A trout of a clear, running, sandy stream is likely 
to be slenderer, lighter colored, and more silverj’- than one of a sluggish, muddy stream. The 
same, as previously stated, may be said of ponds and lakes, or different portions or branches of 
the same stream or different localities in the same lake. The shape and color also often vary 
with the age and size of the individual. 
But most of the "distinctive” color and form characters of the "Cedar Tree” Trout and 
the upper-water Brook Trout just mentioned were obviously due to breeding season, which 
accounts for their seldom being caught at any other time. Now and then a trout retains the 
appearance of the breeding fish long after the season is over, not having regained his former 
strength and vigor, and, as is stated in connection with spawning habits, there are instances of 
fish being found in breeding condition out of season. 
The cause of the "red” color of the flesh of salmon and trout has long been a mooted ques- 
tion and ascribed to many things which, upon due consideration, have been found to be incon- 
