38 ROD AND RIVER 



will rise at a trout-fly, when they are matured 

 they are only to be caught by spinning with a 

 trout, or a night-line. They are, when full 

 grown, very handsome fish, despite the extreme 

 size of their heads. In colour they are a deep 

 purple-brown, shading off into a red-gray, and 

 of an orange-yellow hue on the belly ; but 

 the colouring, like that of the mackerel, rapidly 

 fades after death. When cooked the flesh is 

 yellowish, and is by no means as good eating as 

 might be expected. 



I fancy but few of my readers have had the 

 fortune to secure a good specimen of this fish. 

 Should, however, such luck be theirs, and they 

 should obtain one of large size, I should advise 

 their sending it to Mr. Butt for preservation 

 as a curiosity. Fortunately the species is not 

 often met with. I say fortunately, because were 

 they abundant in any of the lakes which they 

 inhabit, no other fish would have the ghost of a 

 chance of living in the same water, for they are 

 the most insatiable cannibals, and are capable of 

 inflicting more damage in the way of the whole- 

 sale slaughter of other fish than any two pike of 

 the same size, their activity being superior to that 

 of the latter, and with their terrible teeth their 

 is no hope of escape for any unlucky fish they 

 may chance to seize. 



The name Salmo ferox far better expresses 



