154 LAKES AND RIVERS. 



Trout is a greedy fish, devouring quantities of worms, 

 small fish and fry ; but its favourites are small aquatic 

 insects. Its frequent habit of coming to the surface 

 of the water to seize on ephemerae has, perhaps, sug- 

 gested the art of fly-fishing, which is pre-eminently 

 followed with regard to this fish. Trout are caught 

 in hand-nets, sieves, baskets and snares of a variety of 

 shapes. The body of the Trout is proportionately 

 rather long and laterally compressed. In that in- 

 teresting and valuable journal, Land and Water, 

 there are many instances recorded of unusually large 

 trout; of these the one called " Lady Rodney's Trout "" 

 weighed 16 lb., and some are mentioned of even 

 greater weight. Trout are said to live to a great 

 age ; a correspondent in the above-named paper, 

 mentions one which had lived twenty-four years in a 

 spring-well, without artificial food : it was sent to Mr. 

 Buckland for his museum. Trout are found in most 

 of the clear streams and rivers in the country. Some 

 lakes are celebrated for them ; there is the great lake 

 Trout (S. ferooc) and S. cczcifer or levensis (the Loch 

 Leven Trout). Thefervx is said to be comparable in 

 size and weight to the Salmon. There are two varieties 

 of it. It abounds in the lakes of Sutherlandshire and 

 the north of Scotland, also in Lough Neagh, in 

 Ireland. Loch Leven has long been celebrated for its 

 trout, which in some respects approximate to salmon. 

 The Gillaroo Trout (S. stomachicus) is another species, 

 by some writers considered only a variety of the 

 common trout. It is taken in Lough Derg in Ire- 

 land, and in Scotland in a small lake named Mulach 

 Corry, in the county of Sutherland. This species has 



