COMMON TROUT. 233 



error may have been committed the more readily, because that 

 large and voracious fish is found to be an inhabitant of some 

 districts, where from its limited size it had not been suspected 

 to be found. We will not venture to say how seldom it is 

 that the Common Trout will weigh more than a dozen or fifteen 

 pounds; but an example of seven or eight is usually sufficient 

 to excite curiosity, and those of two or three pounds are of 

 more frequent occurrence. The authority of the Prussian 

 naturalist Bloch is good for a large part of the continent of 

 Europe; and he says that the usual length of the Trout is 

 about a foot, with the weight of half a pound, and one that 

 amounted to eight pounds was thought to be of such extraor- 

 dinary size as to be a fit present for the Elector of Saxony. 

 But examples of larger size than this are scarcely uncommon 

 in England, where yet they are fished for with eagerness; and 

 Sir Humphrey Davy, in his "Salmonia," quoting Lord Dedun- 

 stanville's edition of "Carew's Survey of Cornwall/' says that 

 when some small river Trout, in length two inches and a half, 

 were placed in a newly-made pond, in the second year some 

 of them were about twelve inches in length; in the third year 

 one measured sixteen inches, and in the fourth year one had 

 grown to twenty-five inches. But the shape is much alike in 

 all these instances, except as the examples are better or worse 

 fed; and yet there occurs such a variety of aspect as to raise 

 the belief that differences exist between the fish of different 

 waters to such an extent, that a practised eye may be able 

 to pronounce from what district each individual has come. 

 And this is the case where beyond question the variations are 

 of one distinct species; for we leave the more obvious variations 

 which have given rise to doubts for subsequent consideration. 

 In the example we select for description, which measured a 

 foot in length, the head and body are moderately compressed, 

 the head proportionally small, the outline rising from the head 

 to the dorsal fin, and gradually falling again to the tail; the 

 body covered with small scales; lateral line straight. The jaws 

 equal when shut, gape moderate; the mystache reaching back 

 to about the middle of the eye, armed with teeth, as are also 

 the jaws, round the palate and along the vomer; a prominent 

 double row along the tongue; all sharp, incurved. Eye of 

 moderate size, rather larger than in the full-grown Salmon or 



VOL. IV. 2 H 



