CHAPTER XXV. 



THE SEA TROUT, WHITE TROUT, OR SALMON 

 TROUT. 



THE sea trout, white trout, or salmon trout (Salmo trutta) , is the last 

 of the migratory white trouts, and is, perhaps, with the exception of the 

 Thames trout, the most beautiful of all our salmonidse, and the most 

 active and vigorous. It may be said to rank as a food fish next to the 

 salmon ; indeed, by many persons it is- preferred to the latter. The dis- 

 tinguishing marks which show its identity as compared with the salmon 

 are given in the preceding chapter. It is not, therefore, needful for me 

 to again enumerate them. This fish cannot by any possibility be 

 mistaken for the golden trout, because of its essentially silver colour 

 throughout, unless, indeed, it be confined to fresh water for any length 

 of time, when its hue does approximate to that of the fario. 



Both this and the Salmo eriox may be hatched and reared in fresh 

 water, and I have kept them for three years with great accession of size 

 and sporting quality. They will then rise at the fly in such a way as 

 to suggest that it is their natural food, did we not know that the fresh- 

 water ephemera, &c., are not found on and in the sea. In fact, it has 

 been proved that the usual food of this fish is the sandhopper, with an 

 occasional variation in the shape of beetles, flies, and other insects and 

 small fish. When it enters the river it may be seen in shoals, almost 

 rising to whatever seems to present an attraction, and it is then that 

 tremendous bags are sometimes made. Ordinary grilse flies at such time 

 do extraordinary execution, and Sir W. Jardine mentions an instance in 

 which thirty-four fish were, under such circumstances, the produce of 

 two rods in about an hour and a half. 



Scotland supplies the London markets with great quantities of these 

 fish annually, and a higher price than that given for salmon is not unfre- 

 quently obtained for them. The Perth, Dundee, Montrose, and Aberdeen 



