The Fordwzch Trout. 171 



a member of the Stour Fishery Association, 

 and have caught trout both above and 

 below Canterbury. I have not been able 

 to see a specimen of the fish Walton 

 refers to ; but experienced salmon anglers 

 living at Canterbury have, and they agree 

 with me in thinking that the fish is the 

 Bull Trout (salmo eriox] which ascends 

 several of our south-coast rivers. This fish 

 corresponds with Walton's description, 

 and only very rarely in this river is one 

 taken on a rod and line, and nothing is 

 ever found in its stomach. If I am nor 

 mistaken, my late friend Frank Buckland 

 was the first to identify Walton's Fordidge 

 Trout with the Bull Trout, and his opinion 

 on a point of that kind was second to 

 none. 



And yet another editor of Walton,. 

 " Ephemera " (Fitzgibbon), says the whole 

 of Walton's account of the Fordidge Trout 

 is a mere fable. 



In fact, these editors of Walton who, 

 generation after generation, impose upon 

 themselves the task of correcting in foot- 

 notes his mistakes, or supposed mistakes, 

 seem to'me to spend much labour in vain y 

 for, as one of them remarks, " Very mucn 

 of what Walton says the reader will at 

 once see to be erroneous." Then why go 

 to the trouble of correcting him, especially 



