SEA TROUT— SEWIN, ITS NAMES. IGl 



liiill trout is a name not restricted to one race, but apparently more used to 

 designate largo and coarse examples. Tntff in Devonshire: likewise employed 

 for "moderately sized fish : Snwin* in Wales : Givintadf in the Teifi : Corr in the 

 Usk :J TiL'hs§ in the Taft": BuntUngs\\ in tho Clwyd, Elwy and Chester Deo: Peal 

 in Devonshire and along the south coast ; of these, several kinds have received 

 names, or else owing to the time of their appearance as May-Peal, Pug- Peal, 



and With's in 1800 a considerable amount of information was given respecting the sewin. In tho 

 Severn they were said to be very rare and ascended about July ; only a few were taken, and that 

 by chance, in the Wye, while they were absent from the Monnow and the Lugt,', and rare in tho 

 Usk. At Cardiff the rivers were too polluted for fish to reside in ; but sewin in the Ograorc 

 spawned as early as September. A second form termed " tobbs," or tivb.^ was believed to belong to a 

 dift'erent species of sea trout. Mr. Lea asserted that sewin from 1 lb. to o lb. in weight ascended 

 in April, those of about 2 lb. weight in May, but only of 1 lb. weight in August. Mr. Llewellyn, 

 however, observed that about Christmas there was a run of young lish from i lb. to -J lb. in weight 

 which ascended in couples. Near Swansea, the Tawc abounded in sewin, and some ascended 

 the Cadly and the Neath river, while these fish augmented in numbers in the Carmartlien Bay, 

 being very abundant in the Towy, where their average weight was from 2^ to S lb. and they seldom 

 exceeded 6 lb. A fisherman remarked that, from April until August, the sewin vary from 4 lb. to 

 1 lb. in weight, and they used a four-inched mesh for their nets, but they generally run very large 

 from April to about the middle of June ; in August sewin nets were superseded by those for the 

 salmon. Another witness did not know of any fish termed " twbs " in the Towy ; he considered 

 there was only one kind of sea trout in the river, and that the large ones were salmon. Sewin were 

 said to be taken in small meshed nets during July and August in tho Claddew and the Teifi. In 

 the T;lf, the produce of the river upon which fishermen most depended was said to be the sewin. 

 In the Neveru at Newport, the sewin commenced ascending in June, and were plentiful. Tho 

 Dovey contained a large amount of sewin until the mine water stopped them to some extent. In 

 the Conway sewin were more abundant than salmon, and commenced spa wring in September. 

 Near Ehyl, in the Clwyd and Elwy, the sewin were termed " bantlings,'" and were in good 

 numbers, perhaps one hundred to every salmon : they commenced running up in June to the end 

 of August or September, and by the beginning of October they were out of condition. In the 

 Chester Dee these fish were asserted to be plentiful up to July and August. As regards size, sewin 

 were said to attain to 12 lb. in weight, but bull trout only to .5 lb. or 6 lb. : while it was stated that 

 in some waters which were never netted their average weight did not come up to 4 lb. 



* Bucklaud observed, " A fish known in the neighbourhood of the Ogmore, Wales, as the 

 sewin, runs up in July, August, and September. These are said to be all females ; some say that 

 the twb, or in Welsh ' Twbbyn ' (i.e. the sea trout), is the male of the sewin." Continuing that, 

 the Eev. Augustus Morgan "writes me, " The sewin comes up the river Rhymney, South Wales, 

 just when the oak is coming into bloom. Brith-dail (Queen bull trout) come when the leaves in 

 the autumn are beginning to change colour and fall; and the salmon proper (Salmo salar) never 

 ascend in any numbers till November or December." Dr. Gilnther, however, gave a different 

 interpretation, asserting that hybrids are known as " Twb-y-dail, literally Fall of the Leaf, 

 indicative of the reddish shade of colour, and of the dark brown spots of the male " (Catal. vi, p. 47). 

 While in Owen's Welsh Dictionary this term is locally employed for the chub, Lcuciscus 

 cejjhahis. 



f Captain Benyon, when giving his evidence before the Salmon Commissioners^ in 1800, 

 observed that in Welsh rivers this name was given to the Sewin when in certain conditions, while 

 in the Teifi fry were so-called. It means " weak fish." Major Treherne also asserted that they 

 were sea trout, that he took them with sea lice upon them, that they ascend the river all through 

 the summer, and he only knew them from trout by their play and the large spots on thcra, 

 while li^lb. was the largest he had seen. A fisherman, Llewellyn, also deposed that Gwiniad 

 Ebrill, or April gwiniad, arrived about the middle of that month, of a size from \ lb. to 2i lb. 

 They are a very handsome fish, the marks on them instead of being small like a trout are large 

 brown spots about the size of a threepenny or fourpenny piece. Its flesh is as pink as any 

 salmon in the highest season, while the trout in the Ogmore is particularly white. 



+ Mr. C. Pennell says, " I have caught several hundred bull trout myself in the Usk, averaging 

 froin 4 lb. up to 20 lb., and never remember to have caught one of much less than the first-named 

 weight, it is only reasonable to conclude that this is the size at which they return to the river 

 after their first salt-water trip " (p. 148). . • • . .i, 



§ Major Treherne giving his evidence before the Commissioners appomted to mquire mto the 

 English and Welsh Salmon Fisheries in 1800, remarked concerning the Ogmore, " I know there 

 are fish running down in October called ' twb-y-dail,' they are about nine or ten pounds, and I 

 believe them to be nothing else but the male of the sewin. I have never found any milt in what 

 are called sewin. In my belief the twb-y-dail are all male fish. I am certain that tho scwin of 

 Wales, the sea trout of Scotland, and the white-trout of Ireland are the same fish." 



II Edwards, giving evidence in 18()0 respecting the lish in the Clwyd and Elwy stated,_ " there 

 are only five sorts of fish in our rivers. The first is brown trout ; the next is gravehng, and 

 where you see graveling there will be no salmon come up to that river at all ; then after the 

 graveling there will be the sea trout and tho other salmon we call buntling— there are great spots 

 upon them just like a snake," 



