176 ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FISHERIES 



ceed 7 or 8 Ibs. The fish, when cut, is much whiter 

 than the other species, and is very insipid. 



GREAT LAKE TROUT 



Although the literature of the English Lake 

 District Fisheries is of the sparsest possible char- 

 acter, any writer who has even touched the fringe 

 of the subject mentions the Ullswater trout, the 

 great grey trout, the great lake trout, synonyms 

 for one and the same fish. The great lake trout 

 is almost invariably referred to in a specific sense, as 

 though it were a well-defined species (as possibly 

 it may be) with well-marked characteristics and 

 structural peculiarities. I may add that this is the 

 fish referred to in Derwentwater, Bassenthwaite, 

 and Crummock as the " Hard-head." 



My own opinion and 1 state it with all deference 

 to the opinion of others is that the great lake 

 trout is nothing more than a variety of the 

 common brown trout of our lakes and rivers 

 having acquired its size, predatory habits, and 

 several small physical peculiarities from the favour- 

 able food circumstances in which it finds itself 

 and from its comparative immunity to capture 

 owing to the deep-water conditions which it almost 

 invariably affects. 



As already stated, none of the earlier writers 

 misses mention of the great lake trout. Dr. 

 Heysham (who contributed a list of Animals to 

 Hutchinsoris History of Cumberland), calls the fish 

 the Ullswater trout, because he believes* it to be 

 " found no where in Cumberland except in the lake 

 from which it takes its name." He also calls it 

 grey trout. Its weight he modestly puts at 



