102 SALMONID.E. 



Mr. Stodclart, in his u Art of Angling as practised in Scot- 

 land," mentions an interesting experiment made with Trout, 

 some years ago, in the south of England, in order to ascertain 

 the value of different food. " Fish were placed in three 

 separate tanks, one of which was supplied daily with worms, 

 another with live minnows, and the third with those small 

 dark-coloured water-flies which are to be found moving 

 about on the surface under banks and sheltered places. 

 The Trout fed with worms grew slowly, and had a lean 

 appearance ; those nourished on minnows, which, it was 

 observed, they darted at with great voracity, became much 

 larger ; while such as were fattened upon flies only, attained 

 in a short time prodigious dimensions, weighing twice as 

 much as both the others together, although the quantity of 

 food swallowed by them was in nowise so great." 



Of four Trout fed in a stew together, three of them 

 weighed fifteen pounds each, the fourth attained the weight 

 of seventeen pounds ; but neither the food nor the time 

 consumed was recorded. 



A writer on fishes and fishing in the New Sporting Maga- 

 zine for November 1840, says, page 275, "An acutely ob- 

 serving friend of mine, who has paid close attention to the 

 growth of Trout, having regard to Mr. Shaw's experiments on 

 Salmon, concludes that Trout are rarely visible the first year; 

 that they congregate with Minnows, and other fry, the 

 second ; are found on shallows the third summer, about seven 

 or eight inches long, and subsequently increase rapidly to a 

 pound or a pound and a half, dependent on the quantity and 

 quality of their food, the season, and other circumstances. 

 This gentleman has, for years, kept Trout in a kind of store 

 stream, and, having fed them with every kind of food, has had 

 some of them increase from one pound to ten pounds in four 

 years. T found, says lie, that one of the Trout I had fed 

 and weighed regularly for the last six years, was not improving 



