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Lac de Marbre Trout; Marston Trout
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This interesting charr was described in 1893 by Professor Samuel Garman, from specimens sent him from Lac de Marbre, Ottawa County, Province of Quebec.
The distribution of this trout has not been determined. If it is identical with the so-called red trout of Canada, as seems probable, it will doubtless be found in most of the suitable waters north of the St. Lawrence and tributary to it. Besides the specimens which Professor Garman had from Lac de Marbre, which is near Ottawa, other examples have been obtained from one of the lakes of the Laurentides Club in the Lake St. John district, others from Lac a Cassette, in Rimouski County, only a few miles from the St. Lawrence, and, more recently, many fine examples were secured by Mr. J. W. Titcomb from Lake Saccacomi and the Red lakes in Maskinonge County, township of St. Alexis des Monts, Quebec.
These red trout were at first thought to be bottom feeders, and that they would not rise to the fly, but they are now known to take the fly readily, and must be classed among the most beautiful and active of American game-fishes.
It is regarded by Professor Garman as allied to the Oquassa trout, from which it differs in the longer maxillary, stronger dentition, deeply notched caudal fin, larger size and different colouration. It seems even more closely related to specimens which have been identified by Dr. Bean with Salvelinus rossi of Richardson, which may be identical with the Greenland charr.
Little or nothing has been recorded regarding its game qualities, but its trim appearance and rich colouration, together with the cold water in which it lives, would indicate a fish well worthy the attention of anglers.
Head 5; depth 6; eye about 5; snout 3 3/4; interorbital 3 1/3; D. 13; A. 13; V. 9; P. 14; Br. 11+12; vertebrae 60; gillrakers 8+14. Body subfusiform, compressed, pointed at the snout, slender at the tail; mouth large; maxillary straight, extending almost to posterior edge of eye, bearing strong teeth nearly its whole length; teeth on intermaxillary and mandible stronger; a series of 4 strong hooked teeth on each side of tongue; opercle thin, with few striae; scales very small, apparently about 230 in the series immediately above lateral line, and more than 250 in a row 5 or 6 scales above this; dorsal and anal slightly emarginate; pectoral and ventral small, base of the latter slightly behind the middle of that of dorsal; caudal peduncle very slender; caudal lobes pointed, the notch very deep. Colour, back dark brown, unspotted, with an iridescent bluish tint; dorsal dark, clouded, without spots or bands; pectoral, ventrals and anal orange in the middle, yellowish or whitish toward bases and at their margins; dark colour of back shading into whitish tinged with pink below lateral line; ventral surface white, no doubt reddish in breeding season; head black on top; cheeks silvery, whitish beneath; caudal fin yellowish toward base, brown distally; faint areas of lighter tint suggest a few spots of red in life along lateral line; flesh pink. It reaches a length of a foot or more.