CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE GREAT LAKE TROUT. 



HAVING thus dealt with the common Salmo fario of our streams and 

 rivers, it now becomes my task to revert to the history of the great lake 

 trout, which is the second of the generally recognised three species of 

 yellow trouts in England. The first of these is the S. fario, and the third 

 the Loch Leven trout (8. levenensis). 



The flesh of the great lake trout (8. ferox) is commonly of an orange 

 yellow, and the exceedingly disproportionate length of its head about 

 one-fourth of the length of the fish as well as the squareness of its 

 tail, clearly distinguish it from the 8. levenensis and the 8. /euro. If 

 these distinctions be borne in mind, the fish will be readily recognised and 

 never confounded with the foregoing 8. fa/iro. 



These fish often grow to great size. The Earl of Enniskillin informed 

 Couch of a 281b. fish from Lough Eck, and I have heard of one of 311b. 

 from Loch Awe. The ordinary size runs to 121b. or 151b., however. 



The fish was known in Sweden, as Nillson mentions. It is chiefly 

 found in Loch Awe and throughout the deeper and larger lochs of the 

 country. Ireland produces them, and specimens have been taken from 

 Malham Tarn, in Yorkshire. It is also found in Llyn-y-Bugail, in Mont- 

 gomeryshire. According to the " Angler Naturalist," it is the Ullswater 

 trout, and the grey trout of the lake districts ; but, although it has been 

 supposed identical with the great trout of the Lake of Geneva, Agassiz 

 has determined that it is not so, there being strongly pronounced 

 differences between the two species. 



The name ferox sufficiently denotes the nature of this member of the 

 salmonidce family. Its nature is, indeed, fierce and unrelenting, bold and 

 voracious. It is said in exemplification of this, that it will, after having 

 taken a bait, allow itself to be dragged 40yds. or 50yds. behind the boat 

 before leaving go, even if not hooked ; and should it then do so it will 



