COMMON TROUT. 101 



tlic same rivulet, and in depth and soil at bottom to all 

 appearance, precisely similar, should produce fish as different 

 from each other as it is possible for those of the same species 

 to be. In the centre lake, the Trout are dull, ill-shapen, and 

 dark-coloured ; the head large, the body lank, and though of 

 double the size, compared to their neighbours, are killed with 

 much less opposition. In the adjacent loughs, their hue is 

 golden and pellucid, tinted with spots of a brilliant vermilion. 

 The scales are bright, the head small, the shoulder thick, 

 and, from their compact shape, they prove themselves, when 

 hooked, both active and vigorous. At table they are red and 

 firm, and their flavour is particularly fine ; while the dark 

 Trout are white and flaccid, and have the same insipidity of 

 flavour which distinguishes a spent from a healthy Salmon. 

 The red Trout seldom exceed a herring-size ; and in looking 

 through the contents of the baskets, which amounted to at 

 least twelve dozen, I could only find two fish which weighed 

 above a pound. 



" The dark Trout, however, from their superior size, are 

 more sought after by the mountain fishermen. They rarely 

 are taken of a smaller weight than a pound, and sometimes 

 have been killed, and particularly with a worm, or on a night- 

 line, of a size little inferior to that of a moderate Salmon. 



" I never observed the effect of bottom soil upon the 

 quality of fish so strongly marked as in the Trout taken in a 

 small lake in the county of Monaghan. The water is a long 

 irregular sheet of no great depth ; one shore bounded by a 

 bog, the other by a dry and gravelly surface. On the bog 

 1 side, the Trout are of the dark and shapeless species peculiar 

 to moory loughs ; while the other affords the beautiful and 

 sprightly variety, generally inhabiting rapid and sandy 

 streams. Narrow as the lake is, the fish appear to confine 

 themselves to their respective limits ; the red Trout being 

 never found upon the bog moiety of the lake, nor the black 

 where the under surface is hard <n % avel. v 



