378 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



sometimes, in the excitement of the moment, press on, and 

 actually become stranded. 



As well as the large freshwater trout, the kelted eriox, some- 

 times the kelted salar, takes part in these persecutions of the 

 parr-stock. The pertinacity, I may remark, with which the 

 assailing fish will stick to its object of attack, can be no secret 

 to the practised minnow-fisher, who, in drawing the lure to bank, 

 through a crowd or shoal of minnows, must have observed how 

 the whole attention of the pursuing trout is fixed upon the object 

 of its chase, to the utter disregard of the others, some of which 

 in their fright appear to graze its very jaws. 



The ravages committed by the river-trout on the salmon fry, 

 are, in his little publication, The Natural History of the Sal- 

 mon, made the subject of comment by the late Andrew Young 

 of Invershin. ' The river-trout,' he says, ' may, among all 

 others, be considered the salmon's greatest enemy.' After call- 

 ing attention to the damage inflicted by them on the spawning- 

 beds, he proceeds, ' It is not only during the spawning season 

 that trout are destructive to the salmon, but as soon as the fry 

 are hatched and abroad in the rivers, they actually feed upon 

 them, and continue to do so during the first twelve months of 

 their existence. We once put a dozen of smolts into a pool 

 along with a trout of half a pound weight, and by next day, the 

 gorgon had devoured the whole twelve ; and we have not the 

 least doubt but that the trout at large in the river have an equal 

 share daily with the one with which we tried the experiment. It 

 is therefore,' he concludes, ' essentially necessary that these vora- 

 cious enemies should be destroyed in salmon rivers, or at all 

 events reduced to the fewest possible number ; and among the 

 many practical methods of doing so, we would strongly recom- 

 mend catching them with the net at certain seasons, and care- 

 fully nursing and preserving the otter, as an effectual means of 

 destroying the large river-trouts.' 



