34 



THE SEA-TROUT 



of doubt; but it occasionally happens, especially when confined for a 

 long time in a loch, that the Sea-trout acquires a colour not altogether 

 unlike that of the Yellow Trout." 



In " The Fishing Gazette " of September 6th, 1913, to take a 

 specific instance, I observed that a party of anglers fishing from a 

 Donegal hotel had been divided in opinion on this question with respect 

 to one of the fish caught. With commendable enterprise one of the 

 party sent some of the scales of the fish for identification to Mr. R. B. 

 Marston, who passed them on to Mr. J. Arthur Hutton, for his 

 opinion. Mr. Hutton, disclaiming any expert knowledge of trout 

 scales, " rather hesitated to express a decided opinion," but, arguing 

 the case intelligently on the facts, came to this conclusion : — " I am 

 inclined to think that your correspondent's fish was a sea-trout which 

 had been a long time in fresh water." I may add that several similar 

 cases of dubiety regarding trout from other waters were discussed in 

 "The Field" in the autumn of 1913. 



With regard to trout assuming the superficial appearance of sea- 

 trout, we have already noted that Mr. Calderwood found in the estuary 

 of the Tay " large silvery common brown trout." 



It is possible that the reader may seek to find some evidence of the 

 theory here discussed in the waters with which he as an angler is 

 familiar. I have myself sought for some such evidence, and it occurs 

 to me that the theory may have some bearing upon the diversity of 

 appearance which marks the trout in the area drained by the river 

 Clyde, an area which, according to the Bathymetrical Survey, includes 

 the Loch Lomond and Leven drainage area. The diversity is strongly 

 marked between the trout which inhabit the river Clyde above the Falls 

 of Clyde and those which one finds in the Loch Lomond basin which 

 drains into the Clyde estuary. 



Accepting Mr. Regan's proposition that our British trout, non- 

 existent during the Ice Age, originally ascended from the sea, it is easy 



