CHAR, the name given to fishes of the genus Salvelinus, which differs from Salmo (salmon and trout) in having the vomerine teeth present only on the head of the bone, which is raised and has a boat-shaped depression behind it. Salvelinus alpinus of the Arctic ocean is a marine fish that enters rivers to breed and may form freshwater colonies, especially in lakes. It is represented by many isolated colonies in lakes that it entered in glacial times, far to the south of its present range in the sea, in Scandinavia and the Alps, in Scotland, Ireland and the Lake District of England, and in North America. Many of these lacustrine forms differ con siderably from the northern migratory char, and have been described as distinct species; they are more or less similar to trout, but have smaller scales and are generally beautifully col oured—bluish or olive above, often with bright orange spots on the sides; the belly varies from pink to scarlet, the coloration being most intense in the breeding males. The migratory fish are silvery, with the spots inconspicuous. Salvelinus fontinalis, the brook trout of eastern North America, is mainly a river fish, dis tinguished by the blackish mottling of the back and the dorsal and caudal fins; sea-run individuals (the Canadian "salmon trout") are plain silvery. Salvelinus namaycush, the Great Lake trout of North America, is a grayish fish with dark markings on the dorsal and caudal fins; it is distinguished from other char by the widely forked caudal fin; it reaches a weight of ioo pounds.