226 SEA-TROUT. 



the bull-trout, with few exceptions, are very inferior as 

 food, and contain large quantities of roe. The kipper 

 fish, however, being in a more backward state of matu- 

 rity, are sometimes presentable enough. 



The bull-trout is distinguished from the salmon by 

 the number of maculae on its gill cover ; the salmon or 

 grilse seldom exhibiting above one or two spots on that 

 part of the head. It is also more plentifully strewn 

 with spots on the back, shoulders, and upper portion of 

 the flank ; the teeth are long and strongly formed, the 

 tail square and expansive, and the scales, which are 

 much smaller in proportion than those of the salar, 

 adhere tenaciously to the skin. 



Mr. Yarrell says, that during its second year, it is 

 termed a whitling in the Tweed. By many fishermen 

 it certainly is so, but quite erroneously. What I have 

 always regarded as a whitling, and what others in com- 

 mon with myself hold as such, differs in many respects 

 from the bull-trout. It agrees, in fact, more with Mr. 

 YarrelPs description of the salmo trutta. Its tail is 

 forked, its mouth tender and armed with small teeth ; 

 the spots on the gill cover are silvered over, or but 

 faintly marked in comparison with those of the eriox ; 

 the ones on the back, shoulders, and upper portion of 

 the flank are few, and occupy a lighter ground, while 

 the scales, in proportion, are much larger, and less tena- 

 cious. Besides, a great number of these fish, which weigh, 

 generally speaking, from a pound to three pounds, ascend 

 Tweed in June and July, the run of bull-trouts 

 during the above months being comparatively scant. 

 Quantities also make their appearance after the removal 

 of the nets, and I have frequently captured, by means 

 of the salmon roe, whitlings and bull-trout, on the 

 same occasion, the former equalling the latter in point 



