238 COMMON TROUT. 



condition, as regards size, colour, and goodness, of the most 

 ordinary inhabitants of our streams. 



But there are other effects to which the Trout is liable from 

 local situation and influences, and far less easy to be accounted 

 for; since they involve a material interference with the structure 

 of important organs, to such an extent as seems scarcely com- 

 patible with its existence. The first we shall mention is 

 represented by a figure in Mr. Yarrell's work, vol. ii, p. 108; 

 where the upper jaw is deficient, while the lower jaw is of the 

 usual length. In other particulars this fish does not differ from 

 other Trouts; the most remarkable circumstance concerning it 

 being, that it is not a merely casual deformity of an individual, 

 but is common in lakes or pieces of water which lie at some 

 considerable elevation in hills of great height. Such is the case 

 in a small loch called Loch Dow, near Pitmain, in Inverness-shire; 

 and a variety closely resembling it is found in Lough na 

 Minna, in the county of Clare, in Ireland. This latter lake is 

 on the top of a mountain, nearly seven hundred feet above the 

 level of the sea, and four miles from it; and there are other 

 deficiencies of structure, which are chiefly or solely seen in 

 lofty situations, which we have seen recorded, or have ourselves 

 been witness to. 



So long since as the times of Giraldus Cambrensis, in the 

 twelfth century, it had been noticed that in the Llyn y Cwn, 

 or Pool of Dogs, in AVales, there was a Trout which, I suppose 

 not invariably, was deficient of the left eye; and the same was 

 said of the Perch and Eel, which were found in the same 

 water. Strange as this may appear, we learn from Mr. Hansard's 

 "Trout and Salmon Fishing in Wales," that as regards the 

 Trout, the fact has been confirmed by a fisherman of that 

 neighbourhood, as also by the Hon. Daines Barrington. 



A Trout with a remarkable distortion of the spinal column 

 into an arch at the situation of the adipose fin, is also reported 

 from the same lake; and Dr. Fleming says that the same occurs 

 in the River Eynion, in Cardiganshire. I have also obtained 

 it from Caldew, in Cumberland, where they are common; and 

 in these examples, of which two were sent to me, the head 

 appeared unusually large; the hump or elevation was above the 

 anal fin, which had only nine rays; and the adipose fin stood 

 on the top of the arch, the body being again bent down at 



