34 THE FRESH-WATER TROUT. 



slightly extended in the paunch, I was induced to cut 

 open. On my doing so,, a large Irish-tempered bait- 

 hook presented itself, the barb and turn of the wire 

 imbedded in the fleshy parts of the fish, while the shank 

 lay in the stomach, exposed to its action. On making 

 an attempt to remove the silk dressings, with which the 

 latter portion of the hook was still encircled, the iron 

 beneath crumbled away, like lamp-black, betwixt my 

 fingers, leaving only an irregular skeleton of wire, in 

 some parts not one fourth of the original thickness. 

 The remainder of the hook, which I have in my pos- 

 session, was not in the slightest degree injured or cor- 

 roded. The effect described being, as I am inclined to 

 think, produced solely by the action of the digestive 

 organs, and not in consequence of any chemical process 

 put into operation by the contact of the resin and silk 

 with the iron below, what must the effect of that action 

 be upon the ordinary food of the fish, and even upon 

 shells and other hard substances, especially, when en- 

 cased in the stomach of a full-grown trout? To return, 

 however, to the gillarroo, I am inclined to believe that, 

 on strict examination, what is held to characterise a 

 species of trout, found only in certain lakes, will be 

 discovered to exist, in a greater or less degree, in the 

 stomachs of many varieties of the Fario. 



SALMO C<ECIFER, or LEVENENSIS. The far-famed 

 trout of Loch Leven are distinguished, I understand, 

 many of them, from the common fresh-water trout, 

 by the numerical superiority of their ccecal appen- 

 dages. In the Salmo fario, these do not exceed forty- 

 five or forty-six, whereas, in what is appropriately 

 termed the cwcifer, they range from seventy to eighty. 

 The largest trout known to have been captured in Loch 

 Leven weighed eighteen pounds ; but it was not uncom- 



