CHAPTER XIII 

 ROUGH NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



THE FISHES OF THE DISTRICT 



I. GAME FISH 



THE Brown Trout (Salmo fario). This is the 

 common trout of the rivers and lakes of the dis- 

 trict. It is probably more widely distributed than 

 any other fish. There is scarcely any running 

 water in which it does not occur, and it is found 

 at an altitude of nearly 3,000 feet. In colouring 

 and several outward characteristics trout differ 

 more widely than any other fish, and it may 

 be said that almost every river, lake and tarn has 

 its own peculiar trout. This is owing to the 

 peculiar surroundings in which trout find them- 

 selves ; and we can go in gradation from the 

 black troutlets of a fell-beck tributary to the lusty 

 trout of the same river miles below its source ; 

 and from the ill-fed fish of a bleak mountain tarn 

 to the 6 Ibs. and 7 Ibs. monsters of Windermere. 

 Yet all these are varieties of the brown trout, but 

 varieties only ; for, although differing so widely 

 in outward appearance, they present no specific 

 differences. In fact, I know no creature which so 

 quickly conforms to the surroundings in which it 

 finds itself as the common brown trout. 



