168 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



The Britisli and Irish sea trout may now bo referred to as a whole, with the 

 proviso that it is ,c,a'nerallj hchl tliat the northern form is commonly recognized as 

 salmon-trout, Salmo trutta, and the southern or sewin as Salmu eriox, now better 

 known as S. caiiihricus. These varieties have been separated owins^ to certain 

 supposed structural differences, such as the form of the gill-covers, the strength 

 of the jaAvs, the number of teeth on the vomer, and the character of the tail fin ; 

 while the northei-n form has been said to possess from forty-nine to sixty-one 

 crecal apjicndages — rarely less — and the southern from thirty-nine to forty-seven. 

 It will, therefore, be necessary in this examination fii'st to inquire whether these 

 statements are correct ; and secondly, if they are, do these different races pass 

 one into the other ? 



The shape of the body in the two forms, is admitted to be similar, but the 

 proportions of one part to the remainder ditler in accordance with age, season, and 

 locality. In the young, the length of the head is to that of the entire length some- 

 times as little as ^, as seen in some whitlings or hcrlings in the Ouse, and on the 

 cast coast of Scotland, and similar examples occasionally are found along the 

 south and west coasts. As the adult stage is reached, this jircternaturally shortness 

 of the head is usually but not invariably lost, and along with it there is, as might be 



guishod. Afjain, it will be lound that the peal are most regular in their periodical immigrations, 

 which arc quite distinct from the sea trout. As sure as ever a Hood comes down the southern 

 rivers in June, the first of the pcul arc regularly expected, and they never fail to put in au appear- 

 ance and to furnish a fresh and very exciting sport. They take a spinning minnow perhaps more 

 freely than the fly at first, but a cunning fly-fisher may get his fair share of them. Their very track 

 along the coast line of the sea is as well known as the period of their arrival, and fixed nets arc 

 run out at right angles to the shore, and to a distance of not more than a hundred yards in many 

 places, into which the peal will run their stupid heads as they travel aloug during the summer 

 nights, but never a sea trout is found among them, though red and grey muUet are occasionally 

 caught. Hundreds of summer visitors, during June and July, visit Anstey's Cove in the bay that 

 shelters Torquay, and many have found, if they are in luck, that an unexpected dish of peal just 

 fresh from the sea, is ready to be added to their picnic meal. Then will come the old discussion 

 when the iish is produced, as to what sort of a salmon is this. The delighted cockney will have 

 no hesitation in accepting it as a young salmon, and just the right size to suit the occasion ; a 

 patriotic Welshman may imagine that his own familiar sewin lias lost its way in the ocean, and 

 wandered away to the southern coast ; while cosmopolitan anglers who have enjoyed their sport with 

 the sea trout will acknowledge the family likeness, and yet perhaps perceive some difference in shape 

 and structure, and begin to fancy that the i^eal is a distinct species in the great family of the 

 Salmouida:'. 



On December 1st, " A South Devon Conservator " replied in The Fichl, that " near Plymouth 

 we reverse his truff and peal theory, calling the early, thicker fish, from 2 lb. to G lb., ' truff,' and 

 tlie later and smaller fish 'peal.' We also find in the Ycalm river neither take the fly as a rule, and, 

 I thiuk not in the Plym, except at night, though they do in the Tavy freely. In the Ycalm the 

 larger, thicker fish we call ' truff ' do nut jump on being hooked , they fight hard under water ; the 

 i lb. to 2 lb. ' peal ' (as we call them) jump vigorously. Fish vary in every Devon river apparently. 

 There is in the Yealm, in spring, a fish larger than the sahnon fry (' white-fish,' locally called), which 

 does take a fly." " Noss Mayo " concluded the correspondence by observing that " the Fowcy and 

 Camel, in Cornwall, may be taken as equally representative salmon streams with the Dart, although 

 their sources arc not in the Dartmoor watershed. In these two rivers tnilfare occasionally, but not 

 freijuently, met with, the principal branch of the Salmouida; next to the salar being the j«'<i/, which 

 is generally acknowledged in the district to be purely and simply the Salmo trutta. There seems 

 to be a settled conviction in the minds of some writers that peal rarely, if ever, weigh more than 2 lb. 

 What gave rise to such an idea it is difficult to state, except that probably observations of the 

 river were made when the later or ' school ' peal were running. Peal are caught weighing con- 

 siderably over 6 lb. In Tlic Fichl of October 9th, is reported the capture of one weighing 7J lb., 

 and the man who took it is a professional fisherman of fifty years' experience. These larger fish 

 arc not tnlf, and there is no discernible difference between them and peal of 1 lb., except in 

 size. Does not ' A South Devon Conservator ' make the common mistake of calling these first- 

 arriving and larger peal ' truff ' ? The ' u-kite-Jhk ' of the Ycalm, mentioned by the same corre- 

 Eijondent last week, I liave found by comparison to be similar to the fish in Cornish rivers, which 

 are, in my opinion, more correctly termed 'pcul fpaiai.' These fish localize themselves in the 

 fresh water for a longer ijcriod than the fry of the salmon, which generally drop down to the 

 sea in the spring. Moreover, the so-called ' white-fish ' never occur in a river where there are 

 no peal." 



