FRESHWATER TROUT 15 



water; and at night, when it is so dark that the 

 angler cannot see his flies, or even his rod, trout will 

 see and seize a midge-fly, which certainly argues the 

 possession of extraordinary powers of vision. Their 

 eyes are situated in the front of their head, and 

 looking sideways, so that they not only see in front, 

 but also on both sides of them, and even a little 

 behind. 



The growth, size, and edible qualities of trout 

 entirely depend upon the quality and quantity of 

 their food, and these, of course, depend upon the 

 nature of the water they inhabit. The largest and 

 finest trout are usually found in lochs ; these yielding 

 more and better food than rivers. The redness in 

 the flesh, which some trout have, is entirely the 

 result of feeding, and is a very good index to their 

 edible qualities. It is quite a common occurrence to 

 capture red and white-fleshed trout in the same loch 

 or river ; the red-fleshed ones being merely better fed 

 specimens of the same kind. 



Of rivers, those which flow slowly, and are more 

 like canals than rivers, always produce the best 

 trout. Of this description are most of the English 

 streams ; and though trout in some of them are now 

 very scarce, they are occasionally caught of large size ; 

 indeed, in point of size, shape, and edible qualities, 

 they bear away the palm from any that can be found 

 in our Scottish streams. Among our own streams of 

 this kind are the Eden and the Leven in Fifeshire, 

 the Blackadder and the Leet in Berwickshire, the 

 lower parts of the Clyde in Lanarkshire, and Biggar 





