154 SALMON AND TROUT. 



four pounds, but larger specimens are constantly met with ; 

 one, for example, a male, was taken in July 1840, at Sanstill 

 fishery, on the Tweed, thirty-seven inches in length, twenty- 

 two inches in girth, and which weighed twenty-four and a half 

 pounds, and in November 1846, one of forty inches in length, 

 weighing twenty-one and a half pounds, was caught in the 

 Tame, near Drayton Manor, and presented by Sir Robert Peel 

 to Professor Owen. 



Scotland produces the sea trout in great abundance, and 

 throughout almost the whole of Ireland it is widely distributed. 

 In Wales also it is frequently met with, as well as in some of the 

 Devonshire streams and in those of Cumberland and Cornwall. 

 On the banks of the rivers falling into the Solway Frith the 

 sea trout is called, in its grilse state, a hirling, 1 and in Wales 

 and Ireland it commonly goes under the name of white trout. 

 It is believed to be the ' Fordwich trout ' of Izaak Walton, so 

 named from a village on the Stour, near Canterbury, where it 

 still maintains its reputation for being * rare good meat ' 

 according, at least, to the reports of those who have tasted 

 it from the Ramsgate market. M'Culloch mentions that it 

 is found in a fresh- water lake in Lesinore, one of the Hebrides, 

 where it has existed for many years, precluded from ever visiting 

 the sea, but reconciled to its prison, and breeding freely. 



All legal restrictions in regard to the times and methods of 

 salmon fishing apply equally to sea-trout, the habits of which 

 are also generally very similar ; it is unnecessary, therefore, to 

 lay down any separate rules on the subject. 



Principal Characteristics of the Sea Trout. Length of hpad compared to 

 body only, as i to 4 ; depth of body compared to whole length of fish also as 

 i to 4. Teeth small and numerous, in five rows on upper surface of mouth, 

 those on the vomer, or central bone in roof of mouth, generally extending 

 some distance along it, the points turning outwards alternately to either side ; 

 one row on each side of under jaw, and three or four strong, sharp and curved 

 teeth on each side of tongue. Lateral line very nearly straight. Scales adher- 

 ing closely, in form rather a longer oval than those of the salmon. Colour 



1 In seme parts of Scotland, as on the Lochy, for example, the young sea 

 troui, or hirling, goes by the name of the phinnock, or finnock ; and it is, 1 

 have every reason to believe, the ' red fin ' of some of the rivers of North Wales 

 so called from an orange or reddy tip to the adipose fin. 



