AND HOW TO CATCH HIM. 15 



nothing of those of twelve, seventeen, and twenty five pounds ; and 

 which would bear about the same proportion to a trout of two or 

 three ounces as the Lilliputians did to Gulliver, or he himself to 

 the natives of Brobdignag. In very young trout, and also in sal- 

 mon fry, the tail is deeply forked, and they have nine or ten dusky 

 marks across the sides. This has caused many inexperienced fish- 

 ermen to confound salmon fry, parrs and young trouts in indiscrim- 

 inate confusion, though to a practised eye they are easily distin- 

 guishable. As the trout increases in size these dusky bands dis- 

 appear, and they are rarely to be met with in a trout exceeding 

 two ounces weight ; as the fish also advances in age the central rays 

 of the tail fin grow up, so that it by degrees not only loses its 

 forked appearance, but at length assumes a convex form at its pos- 

 terior edge, which affords one of the best criterions of the age of 

 the fish. In some of the old males the jaws acquire the hooked 

 appearance, like those of the male salmon. Both these peculiarities 

 in the tail and jaws of an old trout are beautifully exhibited in an 

 engraving of a trout in Yarrell's British Fishes. 



And here it may not be improper to point out the distinguish- 

 ing features between the trout and the parr, which consists in the 

 latter having a more delicate and rounded form, a blunter 

 nose, a smaller mouth, and the caudal fin more forked : whilst the 

 larger size and great muscular power of the pectoral fin forms a 

 complete distinguishing feature. The slate coloured bands are also 

 narrower than in the young trout ; the general spotting rarely 

 extends beneath the lateral line, and two dark spots on the gill 

 covers are an inseparable mark by which alone it may be distin- 

 guished. There are also many other distinguishing features which 

 might be pointed out, but those already mentioned seem quite 

 sufficient for the present purpose. 



Though the parr is so small a fish, being rarely found to 

 exceed seven or eight inches, few have formed a topic of 

 more puzzling speculation, till at length it has been resolved 

 by Mr. Shaw, after making numerous experiments on the subject, 

 that there is in reality no such fish. It being in fact nothing 

 more or less than the young of the salmon ; the growth of which, 

 by repeated observations he had the opportunity of making upon 

 the subject, he found grew very slowly, and that the greater of 

 them did not descend to the sea till the second year, but remained 

 in the fresh water in the garb of parrs, which they changed to the 



