34 The North Country Angler. 



This trout has more names than any other fish 

 I know; in some places it is called the rackrider, 

 I suppose from its frequenting such shallow 

 places as are commonly called racks. Some call 

 them smouts, a vulgar name for smelts, Some 

 call them the stone trout, from their lying by a 

 stone's side, and feeding in stony streams. Some 

 call them milters, because in the latter end of the 

 year, when the most of them are taken, they are 

 full of milt ; others call them pinks and brand- 

 ling trouts. 



But although the pink and the smelt differ so 

 little in shape and size, yet in some particulars 

 they differ so much, that it is impossible they 

 should be the same fish. One of these is this, 

 that the pink is in its height of perfection and 

 maturity in six or seven months time,-being then 

 full of spawn, which was never seen in any 

 smelts ; another is, that none of them have ever 

 any roes in them, which, if they were the full 

 species of salmon, some of them would have, as 

 well as milts. 



And yet, notwithstanding these distinguishing 

 characteristics, I am fully persuaded, that they 

 are the spawn or breed of a salmon, by either the 

 he or she parent, but not by both, for then in 

 time it would be a salmon : My reasons are 

 these; first, because it resembles a salmon more 

 than any other fish ; secondly, because there are 

 never any of them seen but where salmon are 

 known to spawn. 



I can give one remarkable instance of this, in 

 the river Tees : About three or four miles above 

 Middleham, in Teesdale, there is such a cascade 



