FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



planting, Loch Leven fry began to tell on the rod 

 fishing ,• not frequently they attain a weight of one 

 and a half to two pounds in the first two years of 

 their life. 



The ordinary British trout [Saimofario) abounds 

 in Loch Leven ; but its flesh is neither so high-col- 

 ored nor so delicate, and it does not attain the size 

 of its famous congener, rarely weighing two pounds. 

 Between this trout and the specific Loch Leven 

 there are essential points of difference. I am of 

 opinion that the Loch Leven trout is a distinct 

 species of Salmo from the yellow fario that inhabits 

 every burn and fattens in every mill-pond in Scot- 

 land. I regard it as the descendant of an anadro- 

 mous fish that was sea-going within the present 

 century ; its silvery coat is an infallible evidence of 

 a migratory habit. Sea fishes originally had access 

 to the loch ; flounders were caught there almost 

 within the memory of living men ; and there can 

 be no doubt that this fish, which inhabits the Forth 

 to-day, ascended annually from the Firth, before 

 the age of dams and bleacheries, to spawn in the 

 inlets of Loch Leven and feed upon its luscious 

 Crustacea. Tradition credits its presence in other 

 Scottish lochs to the fathers of the church, who, 

 being restricted to a fish diet during many days of 

 the year, were active in planting choice food-fishes, 



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