218 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



loch, and in many respects the finest fish of the whole. The fry of all kinds are 

 white in the flesh till they come to the size of a herring, about the beginning of 

 the third year. . . . Those called bull-trout are believed to be the old ones. In 

 spring, 17'J1, a large one was caught that weighed ten lb." 



Dr. Walker, in his posthumous Essays on Na/ural llistortj and Rural Economij, 

 1812, observed of the trout in Loch Leven : — " The first most frequent is called at 

 the place Grey Trout, and is a fish not distinctly described by naturalists ; it is 

 found usually from one lb. to two lb. in weight, at times considerably larger. This 

 is supposed to be Salmo levenensis, N. The second, called by the inhabitants bull- 

 trout, Salnto taitrinus, N., supposed to bo a distinct species ; but there is reason to 

 suppose this is the msilo of the above. These two are generally known in Edinburgh 

 as Lochlcven trout. The third is called at Kinross the Camday, is eight in. to 

 ten in. long, and i-cckoned a distinct species : but is only the gray trout at an early 

 age." He likewise referred to three more species as the burn trout and the high- 

 land or muir trout ; and another form of bull trout, which he does not appear to 

 have seen, found in the deep pai-ts of the lake, attaining to seven lb. or eight lb. in 

 weight, and with yellow flesh. 



Graham, General lievieiv of the Agriculture of Kinross and Glaclcmannan, pub- 

 lished towards the commencement of the present century, after giving an account 

 of the 6sh found in Loch Leven, remarked, " Flounders are also found in Loch 

 Leven," which demonstrated that at this jseriod sea-fishes were able to obtain 

 access up the river Leven into the lake. As the w^eirs on the Severn passable 

 to Salmonidw, shad, and eels, appear to be impassable to flounders, the ascent to 

 Loch Leven in those days could not have been very difficult. 



In the year 1874, Mr. R. Burns Begg, the ex-prosideut of the Kinross Fishing 

 Club, compiled an interesting account of this fish, and of the locality which it 

 inhabited. The Lochleven lake, prior to 1830, covered a superficial area of 4312 

 acres ; it is situated 3G0 feet above the sea-level, and receives the waters of the 

 Gamy and the north and south Ineich ; while the mean flow from it throughout 

 the yeai' amounts to 4000 cubic feet a minute, which goes into the river Leven, 

 and this river, after a course of fourteen miles, falls into the Fii'th of Forth. In 

 December, 1830, the loch was diminished to three-fourths of its original dimen- 

 sions, to 3543 acres, by an extensive drainage operation, which permanently 

 reduced its natural level to the extent of four-and-a-half feet, and means were like- 

 wise devised by which, when dcsii'ed, another four-and-a-half feet can be drawn off.* 

 Fleming made a careful inspection of the loch during the years 1834 and 1835, in 

 order to ascertain what effect the drainage had had upon its fisheries, and he con- 

 cluiled that they were permanently diminished one-third in their value ; the sluices 

 acting injuriously to young fish by the strong current at its outflow; that the 

 margin of the lake had undergone a change unfavoiirablc to its piscine inhabitants, 

 owing to the jjeculiar barrenness of the shore, rendering the new margin ill suited 

 for supplying them with food. But in the lake itself the water-snails were found 

 not to have been destroyed. 



Many have supposed that the superior flavour of Loch Leven troutf is a con- 

 sequence of the quality and abundance of the food which they could obtain there. 



* Dr. Giinther wrote in 188G to the Secretary of the Ghisrjoiv Trout Preservation Aseociation, 

 stating that there was a question, " Whetlier tlie celebrated Lochleven trout of old Scotch 

 naturalists is still in existence in its purity. If I recollect rightly Lochleven was, according to 

 the reports of the time, nearly depopulated some twenty years ago, and replenished with stock 

 taken from other localities " (October, 188G). The committee of the above association observed, 

 " This statement as to the mixing of the breed was a surprise to the committee, and on inquiry it 

 was discovered to have no foundation " {Rejiort as to Stockinp Locli Ard u-ith Loclileven Trout, 

 1887, p. 7). Mr. David Marshall, of Kinross, remarked that "the date of the connection of the 

 late Mr. Campbell Marshall, my fatlicr, and myself as tacksmen of Loch Leven, begins with 1st 

 September, 1839, and ends with 1st September, 1874, and certainly no such piece of work was 

 done during those years. . , . and if anything had been done previously, we were sure to have 

 known it " (I. c. pp. 7, 8). 



t Whether tliis form is or is not Sutmo cumherland of Laeepbde, in his Hhtoire A'^aturelle des 

 Poissovs, vol. v, p. 690), cannot now be determined from the meagre description which has been 

 handed down to us ; but that author described it as having a small head, white flesh, and being 

 externally of a gray colour. A correspondent of Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. v, 



