94 SALMON TROUT. 



near to Canterbury, a Trout called there a Fordidge Trout, a Trout that bears the name of the 

 town where it is usually caught, that is accounted the rarest of fish ; many of them near the 

 bigness of a Salmon, but known by their different colour; and in their best season they cut 

 very white ; and none of these have been known to be caught with an angle, unless it were 

 one that was caught by Sir George Hastings, an excellent angler, and now with God; and 

 he hath told me, he thought that Trout bit not for hunger, but wantonness ; and it Is the 

 rather to be believed, because both he, then, and many others before him, have been curious 

 to search into their bellies, what the food was by which they lived, and have found out 

 nothing by which they might satisfy their curiosity." — [Coinplete Angler, i. p. 145, ed. Hawkins.) 

 Yarrell says that the ancient right to the fishery at Fordwich was enjoyed jointly by two 

 religious establishments; and that it is now vested in six or seven individuals, who receive 

 a consideration for their several interests. It was formerly the custom to visit the nets at 

 Fordwich ever}^ morning to purchase the fish caught during the night. "I have seen," he 

 adds, "specimens of the Salmon Trout from the Sandwich river exposed for sale in the fish- 

 mongers' shops at Ramsgate." The specimen in the British Museum from Fordwich is very 

 fine, being a female, nineteen inches long. 



There seems to be no doubt that in some localities the term Bull Trout is applied to 

 this species under consideration ; Dr. Giinther identifies the Saimo eriox of Yarrell and other 

 writers with the Salmon Trout, and thinks that no distinct species is designated by the 

 name of Bull Trout, which is applied to different species at different localities and by 

 different persons. I am inclined to think that the Sa///io criox, as described b}' Yarrell, 

 is a distinct species ; it will, however, be considered separately in the course of this work. 

 The White Trout of the angler — the Peal, or Salmon-peal, as it is also called — is the grilse 

 state of this species (S. tnittaj, as well as that of the Sewen (S. cauibricnsj. 



In Scotland the Salmon Trout is equally abundant with the Salmon, and large quantities 

 find their way to the London fish dealers. When I was in Belfast in July, 1878, I saw 

 numbers of these fish in the markets, but it appears to be less widely distributed in Ireland 

 than in Scotland, though said by Thompson to be common round the coast. Sir William 

 Jardine, In his Illustrations of Salmonidcr, says that in approaching the entrance of rivers, or 

 in seeking out, as It were, some one they preferred, shoals of this fish may be seen coasting 

 the bays and headlands, leaping and sporting In great numbers, from about one pound to 

 three or four pounds in weight ; and In one of the smaller bays the shoal could be traced 

 several times circling it, and apparently feeding. "In these bays," he continues, "they are 

 occasionally taken with a common hang-net, stretched across ; and when angled for in the 

 estuaries, with the ordinary flies which are used in the rivers of the south for grilse, rose 

 and took so eagerly that thirty-four were the produce of one rod, engaged for about an 

 hour and a half. They enter every river and rivulet in Immense numbers, and when fishing 

 for the Salmon are annoying from their quantity. The food of those taken with the rod in 

 the estuaries appeared very indiscriminate ; occasionally the remains of some small fish which 

 were too much digested to be distinguished ; sometimes flies, beetles, or other insects, which 

 the wind or tide had carried out ; but the most general food seemed to be the Talitrus 

 locusta* or common sandhopper, with which some of their stomachs were completely crammed. 

 It Is scarcely possible to arrive with any certainty at the numbers of this fish. Two hundred 

 are frequently taken at a single draught of the net, and three hundred have occasionally been 

 counted." The rivers most noted for Salmon Trout In Scotland are the Tweed, Spey, Don, 

 and the Tay. 



To the fly-fisherman the Salmon Trout affords great sport. Mr. Francis says, "The 



* The T. locusta is a terrestrial amphipod, and never voluntarily seeks the water; if this was the species, they 

 must have been carried out by the tide. 



