Brown Trout 179 
loch is more than 12 feet deep the supply of food soon becomes 
scarce and the trout small, while shallow lochs produce plenty of 
food, therefore large trout. 
The altitude of a loch, too, has a good deal to do with the size 
of the trout. Lochs 1000 feet above sea-level, fed from snow from 
surrounding hills, produce very little feeding until May, and owing 


Fic. 176.—193 lbs., Killarney. April 1907. 
to the cold fall off in September, thus giving the trout only four 
months of good feeding. On the other hand, lochs at or near sea- 
level produce good feeding in March, and continue to do so till 
October, so that the trout have seven months’ good feeding, or 
three months more than their Highland brethren. It will be seen, 
then, that this extra time for feeding, when extended over the seven 
or eight years which constitute the life of a trout, easily accounts 
for the difference in size. But not only is the feeding-time shorter, 
but the food is much scarcer. A loch at sea-level with water 5 to 12 
