THE BROOK TROUTS OR CHARS. 
47 1 
Speckled Trout or Brook Trout of the East. Its home is between lati¬ 
tudes 32^° and 55 0 , in the lakes and streams of the Atlantic watershed, 
near the sources of a few rivers flowing into the Mississippi and the Gulf 
of Mexico, and in some of the southern affluents of Hudson Bay. Its 
range is limited by the western foot-hills of the Alleghanies, and nowhere 
extends more than three hundred miles from the coast, except about the 
Great Lakes, in the northern tributaries of which Trout abound. At the 
South it inhabits the headwaters of the Chattahoochee, in the southern 
spurs of the Georgia Alleghanies, and tributaries of the Catawba in North 
Carolina. It also occurs in the great islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence— 
Anticosti, Prince Edward, Cape Breton and Newfoundland. 
Bean calls attention to the fact that although this species usually has 
no trace of hyoid teeth, he has seen specimens from Labrador, about 10 
per cent of which possessed a few (never more than three) weak teeth on 
the hyoid bone, while occasional examples from New York and Massa¬ 
chusetts show the same abnormality, and farther to the southward the 
normal condition is permanent. 
Temperature is a prime factor in determining the distribution of this 
species, and since few observations have been made in the field, our con¬ 
clusions must needs rest on a study of the species in domestication, an 
instructive though not entirely reliable method. The experience of 
Messrs. Green, Stone and Ainsworth, indicates that Trout cannot thrive 
in water warmer than 68° Fahrenheit, though they have been known to 
live in swift-running water at 75 °. Fishes hatched in artificial ponds 
may probably be inured to greater warmth than wild fishes can endure, 
and it is doubtful whether the latter are often found in water warmer than 
6o° or 65°. At the Oquossoc and Cold Spring hatching establishments 
the water ranges from 45 0 to 49 0 throughout the year. Below 36° Trout 
are torpid and refuse to feed, and instances are on record of their reviv¬ 
ing after being frozen stiff. The remarkable variations in the habits of 
Trout in different regions are easier to understand in the light of these 
facts. In the Long Island region Trout live in salt water in the coldest 
months, when its temperature is below 50°. North of the Bay of Fundy, 
at the entrance of which the water barely registers 50° in midsummer, 
they inhabit the ocean abundantly, except at the spawning time. South 
of New York the coast-reaches of the rivers appear to present a barrier of 
warm water which the Salmon do not seek to penetrate from without, and 
