SALMON TROUT. 95 



white Trout is one of the gamest fish that swims. Like a champion of the light weights, he 

 is all activity. When hooked, he is here, there, and everywhere, now up, now down, now 

 in the water and now out : indeed an hour or two's White-Trout fishing, when the fish are 

 in the humour, is about as lively and pleasant a sport as the angler can desire ; and as 

 Salmon Trout often take the fly well, up to six and seven pounds weight, where they are 

 found of that size, the sport is little inferior to the best grilse fishing. They also take a 

 spinning-bait well while still in salt water, and on the west coast of Scotland it is common 

 to fish for them thus. As to where they are to be sought, that experience alone will 

 determine. They abound in many lakes to profusion, and take nobly in them. I have 

 myself caught a hundredweight of them in a day in a lake in Ireland. They are found in 

 most Salmon rivers, and in smaller streams which are too shallow for Salmon. The smallest 

 mountain beck will often, when in state, give good sport. They also, as I have shown, 

 take in salt water, and are quite as likely to be found in the mouth of the river as they 

 are in the highest pool up amongst the mountains, for they are great and pertinacious 

 travellers. You may catch them in Salmon pools, in dull eddies, and in sharp streams ; 

 so I can give no advice which would be of any value on that score. They are at times 

 very false risers, and come very short at the fly when making apparently a capital rise. 

 This is very trying to the temper." Mr. Francis concludes that the White Salmon Trout 

 "is the most sporting and game fish which the angler meets with." — {Book on Angling, 



As to the colour and quality of the flesh, it is generally of deep pink or red, and of 

 excellent flavour; its price is usually the same as that of a Salmon. The flesh of the Bull 

 Trout of the Coquet is said by some to be invariably very light, with scarcely a tinge of 

 pink about it, and to be inferior in quality. I have, however, been informed by Mr. Christie 

 that sometimes the Salmon Trout of the Beauly is also white, and not very good. According 

 to Giinther the Salvio trntta attains to a length of about three feet, and the female is mature 

 when from ten to twelve inches long. 



In a specimen I received in May, 1878, which weighed three pounds and a half, the 

 total length was twenty-one inches, the breadth above the origin of the dorsal fin about five 

 inches ; length of head to body as one to four ; preeoperculum with a distinct lower limb ; hind 

 margin of gill-cover obtusely rounded; the suboperculum not projecting or scarcely projecting 

 beyond the end of the operculum. In the Sewen the suboperculum does thus project, but not 

 In all cases ; the maxillary is thin and feeble, and extends to below the hind margin of the 

 orbit. In the Sewen the maxillary is strong and solid. Colour of the body above lateral line 

 dark bluish, lighter on the sides ; belly silvery white ; the black X-shaped spots on this fish 

 are generally very distinct ; for the most part they are above the lateral line ; but occasionally 

 there are a few below; the gill-cover is usually marked with a few round black spots; adipose 

 fin dark, free from any red tinge ; the scales are round and small, and easily detached ; tail 

 nearly square. 



Sir William Jardine (Illustrations, &c., pi. x, fig. 2,) has figured a brown or sand-coloured 

 variety of the Salmon Trout, which the fishermen of the Solway call "Sandbacks;" our figure 

 (Salmon Trout var.) was taken from a specimen caught at the mouth of the Tweed : it weighed 

 eight pounds. In a specimen I opened I found no trace of any kind of food ; the stomach, 

 pyloric cseca, and intestine were full of tcenicB and some other active entozoon, a species of 

 Ascaris ; there was some orange-coloured mucus accompanying these contents. 



The fin -ray formula is 



Dorsal 12 — 13. 

 Pectoral 14. 

 Ventral 9. 

 Anal 10 — 1 1. 



