80 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 



and sea-trout, it is not always easy to distinguish at a 

 glance one from the other, and more than once, notices 

 have appeared in the Press such as " salmon caught in 

 the Thames," or in some other waters equally uncon- 

 genial to the King of Fishes, the fish caught really 

 being a sea-trout. 



It does not, however, need an expert to distinguish 

 between these two fish, for there is an infallible sign by 

 which a small salmon or grilse can be distinguished from 

 a sea-trout. 



In the salmon there are ten to twelve scales present 

 along an oblique line running forward from the root 

 of the adipose fin to the lateral line ; in the sea-trout 

 the scales number fourteen. 



The sea-trout appears in our country under various 

 names, for example, the salmon trout, the white trout, 

 the peal, the sewin and the bull trout. Like salmon, 

 sea-trout spawn in fresh water and migrate to sea. But 

 they differ considerably from the salmon in their habits, 

 the most important point of difference, so far as the 

 fisherman is concerned, being the fact that they feed 

 in fresh water. A sea-trout starts life as an alevin, fry 

 and parr, and then becomes a yellow fin, which corres- 

 ponds to the smolt in the salmon. The yellow fin goes 

 to sea and returns after three or four months weighing 

 about a quarter of a pound, and is then known as a 

 finnock, herling, or whitling. Coming back into fresh 

 water about June, finnock feed freely and by the end 

 of the year may have increased to a pound in weight. 



