56 THE SEA-TROUT 



in the number of scales in the oblique line mentioned by Mr. Regan. 

 There are 14, he states," from the adipose or dead fin to the lateral 

 line " in the sea-trout, 10 in the salmon; but he does not indicate, as 

 Mr. Regan properly does, which line of scales should be counted. As 

 to another structural distinction, in a letter to " The Fishing Gazette " 

 of 10 May, 1913, Mr. Malloch wrote: — "The quickest way to tell a 

 sea-trout from a salmon is to lay a pencil along the upper jaw past the 

 eye. If the eve is all above the pencil it is a sea-trout. If the pencil 

 line is through the centre of the eye it is a salmon. The difference is so 

 great one can tell at a glance without the pencil. The same with the 

 smolts of the salmon and sea-trout." An illustration of using the 

 pencil is given in the second edition of his book. It may be remarked 

 that the late Mr. Cholmondeley-Pennell, in " The Angler Naturalist," 

 also drew attention to this distinction, and it is possible that both 

 observers were in this matter under obligation to Yarrell. In "A 

 History of British Fishes " at any rate one finds that Yarrell gives 

 contrasted diagrams of the gill-covers of the salmon, grey trout and 

 salmon trout, and states that " looking at the form of the three gill- 

 covers, it will be obvious that a line drawn from the front teeth of the 

 upper jaw to the longest backward projecting portion of the gill-cover, 

 in either species, will occupy a different situation in respect of the eye; 

 that the line will fall nearest the centre of the eye in the first, that of the 

 Salmon, and farthest below it in the second, that of the Grey Trout." 

 I reproduce here, roughly, for reference (Fig. 15), Yarrell's diagram of 

 the three gill-covers reversed. 



Yarrell, of course, accepted the grey trout, or " bull trout," as a 

 distinct species, and so he attached considerable weight to distinctions 

 in the form of the gill-covers, a distinction which some modern observers 

 have not wholly ratified. But it is clear that the position of the eye 

 seemed to him to be of importance in the distinguishing of the species, 

 and a reference to several specimens of salmon and sea-trout will satisfy 



