28 LOCHLEVEN TROUT. [CHAP. i. 



the vendace seem to be about a third more numerous than 

 the males a characteristic which is also observed in the sal- 

 mon family. The vendace spawn about the beginning of 

 winter, and for this purpose gather, like the herring, into 

 shoals. They are very productive, and do not take long to 

 grow to maturity. 



The peculiarities of the Lochleven trout may be chiefly 

 ascribed to a peculiar feeding-ground. Having lived at one 

 time on the banks of this far-famed loch, I had ample time 

 and many opportunities of studying the habits and anatomy, 

 as well as the fine flavour, of this beautiful fish, which, in my 

 humble opinion, has no equal in any other waters. Feeding 

 I believe to be everything, whether the subjects operated 

 upon be cattle, capons, or carps. The land-locked bays of 

 Scotland afford richer flavoured fish than the wider expanses 

 of water, where the finny tribe, it may be, are much more 

 numerous, but have not the same quantity or variety of food, 

 and, as a consequence, the fish obtained in such places are 

 comparatively poor both in size and flavour. Nothing can be 

 more certain than that a given expanse of water will feed 

 only a certain number of fish ; if there be more than the 

 feeding-ground will support they will be small in size, and if 

 the fish again be very large it may be taken for granted that 

 the water could easily support a few more. It is well known, for 

 instance, that the superiority of the herrings caught in the in- 

 land sea-lochs of Scotland is owing to the fish finding there a 

 better feeding-ground than in the large and exposed open bays. 

 Look, for instance, at Lochfyne : the land runs down to the 

 water's edge, and the surface water or drainage carries with it 

 rich food to fatten the loch, and put flesh on the herring ; and 

 what fish is finer, I would ask, than a Lochfyne herring ? Again, 

 in the bay of Wick, which is the scene of the largest herring- 

 fishery in the world, the fish have no land food, being shut out 

 from such a luxury by a vast sea wall of everlasting rock ; and 



