SALMON AND TROUT 



Tay in Scotland, and it is interesting to note that, as 



recently as October, 1922, a 64 pounder was caught in 



the same river by Miss J. Ballantine who had to play her 



fish for nearly two hours. The previous record for a 



Salmon caught in Scotland by a lady was the 47 pounder 



taken from the River Spey by Miss Phyllis Spender Clay. 



My friend Lord Lytton, now Governor-General of 



Bombay, and a great lover of Nature, once gave me a 



graphic description of a large Salmon which he hooked in 



Norway, but which, after he had played it all day, he 



eventually lost towards evening after several hour's hard 



work. The line, running for so long a time between his 



fingers, severed the flesh to the bone, and after such 



an ordeal I am sure the reader will agree that the 



distinguished angler-statesman deserved a better reward 



for his labour. 



Trout. — Saltno trutta (Fig. 32). When it is stated that 



one well-known authority includes no less than twenty 



or more so-called species of Trout as occurring in 



British waters, the reader will recognise the difficulties 



with which an author is confronted in a popular book of 



this kind. Of the making of species there seems to be 



no end, and we have little, or no, patience with those who 



never seem happier than when turning a variety into 



a species for no apparent reason worth considering. 



Lists, after all, are poor compensations for life- histories, 



and the complete story of no one animal or plant has yet 



been told. Sir Robert Ball once said that " a whole 



lifetime devoted to the study of the Common Daisy would 



67 



