CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY— TROUT AND SEA-TROUT 



There is one question — not quite so simple as it looks — that appears 

 to me to require some investigation before any inquiry into the life- 

 history of the sea-trout is undertaken, and that question is — What is a 

 sea-trout? It is, one must admit, a question which has not yet been 

 very satisfactorily answered by anybody, nor can I pretend to give a 

 very satisfactory answer myself ; but several writers appear to me to 

 have sought for the answer in the right direction, and I shall endeavour 

 in this introductory chapter to indicate to the reader what that direction 

 is. 



In a difficulty it is often prudent to consult a lawyer, and as our 

 question is one of admitted difficulty, I think I cannot do better at the 

 outset than take the opinion of an eminent Scottish legal authority who 

 gave this matter some consideration. In the well-known " Treatise on 

 the Law of Scotland relating to the Rights of Fishing," by Mr. Charles 

 Stewart, Advocate, where the extent of the Crown's right at common 

 law to the ownership of salmon and salmon fishing is under discussion, 

 there occurs this note : — " The Crown holds the right of fishing salmon, 

 but it may be questioned whether that right extends to all fish of the 

 salmon kind. In recent salmon legislation, the word ' salmon ' is 

 expressly declared to possess the wider significance, but natural 

 history and the common interpretation scarcely warrant the construction. 

 Sea-trout and bull trout are perhaps ' fish of the salmon kind,' and the 

 Salmon Acts expressly declare them to be included in their operation ; 

 but in a question of title, can the right to fish for them be held to be 



inter regalia} The rationale of the Crown's right to salmon is 



the value of the fish, an argument which does not apply with equal force 

 to bull trout, herling, etc. These fish, along with the salmonidce of 



7 



