GROWTH AND SIZE. 21 



wiry-jawed, disheartened monster, hauled by main 

 force through a medium whose resistance, at the best, 

 is of a sluggish and passive nature. 



I am unable to state accurately the largest size to 

 which trout, bred and nourished in our Scottish rivers, 

 have been known to grow. It is probable that indi- 

 viduals, purely of the river sort, have attained the 

 weight of ten or twelve pounds. In the " Aberdeen 

 Journal," September 1833, one is made mention of, 

 caught by the gamekeeper at Haughton, in the Don, 

 with rod and line, which weighed eleven pounds, and 

 measured in girth seventeen inches. On Tweed, they 

 have frequently been captured in the cairn-nets, and 

 otherwise, upwards of six pounds ; and more than once, 

 above seven pounds in weight. I have taken them with 

 the rod on this river, and its tributary Teviot, weighing 

 four and a-half pounds ; and I make no doubt, but 

 that there are many scattered up and down its pools 

 and streams, fully as heavy. The trout in Tay, occa- 

 sionally grow to a large size, but I am not aware that 

 any surpassing in weight the biggest found in Tweed 

 have of late years been taken from this river or its 

 tributaries, those excepted which have made their way 

 into its streams out of the loch above Kenmore, Loch 

 Tummel, or some other sheet of water bearing the same 

 relation to it, and containing trout of considerable weight. 



Sluggish streams, that traverse a rich soil, or have a 

 marly channel, are greatly favourable to the growth, I 

 do not say the increase, of trout. Of this sort are 

 several of the Fifeshire waters the Orr, the Leven, 

 and the Eden. In all these, river-trout were wont 

 to be caught of a large size, excelling in point of 

 shape and quality, those of our more notable streams. 

 Machinery, drainage, and other agricultural improve- 



