1 86 WHAT IS A 'FEROX'? 



to carry out a long-deferred intention of ' stock- 

 ing' with trout a chain of three small lochs 

 lying high up on the hills, and till then absolutely 

 devoid of fish-life. Some 1 50 little brown trout 

 were caught high up in a precipitous mountain 

 burn where no spawning trout from the large 

 loch below could possibly ascend, and were duly 

 liberated in these little lochs, the average weight 

 of the little trout being some 7 or 8 to the Ib. 

 Twelve months later one of these trout was 

 caught a bar of burnished silver, and weighing 

 just i Ib. Another year passed, and again the 

 1 wee lochies ' were visited, and again from the 

 very same projecting rock and by the same 

 hand (now alas ! long still), a trout was hooked 

 and safely landed, of which the counterfeit- 

 presentment lies before me. Just 19^ inches 

 long, perfect in shape and colour, it weighed 

 4^ Ibs. But mark the sequel, which may best 

 be told in the words of a letter from Mr. J. A. 

 Harvie-Brown, read at a meeting of the ' Scottish 

 Fisheries Improvement Association' in 1884 

 he having been, with me, a member of the party 

 who originally stocked the lochs : 



1 They developed huge fins and square or 

 rounded tails, lost all spots, took on a coat of 

 dark slime, grew huge teeth, and became 

 "feroces" in that short time. The common 



