CHAPTER II. 



THE SEA-IROUT. 



" There are three beauties in death," runs the Gaelic saying, " a 

 sea-trout, a blackcock and a young child." Of these, it will be 

 observed, the sea-trout is ranked first, with how much of justice will be 

 a matter of opinion. There can be no question, however, that an 

 adult sea-trout of three or four pounds in weight, killed when fresh run 

 from the sea, is one of the most beautiful objects in nature, suggesting, 

 as it does, in its general outline and appearance, the perfect adaptation 

 of physical form and harmonious colouring to habits and environment. 



In beauty of shape alone the sea-trout perhaps stands midway 

 between the salmon on the one hand and the trout on the other. The 

 neater head and more slender tail of the salmon give to that fish a grace 

 which the sea-trout with its more sturdy build cannot rival, and yet the 

 latter as far excels most trout in its suggestion of compact elegance. 



In colouration, too, while emulating each of the others, the sea-trout 

 occupies a middle place, for, if it cannot vie with the splendour of the 

 blue and silver mail of the salmon, it adds to its sheen the distinction 

 of more characteristically varied markings. On the other hand, 

 although few trout can approach the silvery brightness of the fresh-run 

 sea-trout's scales, many of them far out-rival it in the colour and number 

 and variety of their spots. On the whole it may be said that the sea- 

 trout successfully unites in its person the brilliance of the salmon and 

 the more variegated beauty of the trout. 



The sea-trout, like other members of the family Salmonidcs, is an 

 inhabitant of the waters of the Arctic, sub-Arctic and Temperate zones 

 of the Northern Hemisphere. Its exact range it would perhaps be not 

 easy to define, but one might say generally that wherever there are trout 



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