SIZE OF TROUT, ETC. 19 



is the largest river trout we have heard of being 

 caught in Scotland ; but they are not of such fine 

 quality as those taken from our smaller streams. 



We have mentioned the size of trout as almost 

 entirely depending upon the quantity of their food, 

 without reference to age ; indeed this has but little 

 to do with the question, and there being no mark 

 by which their age may be known, any opinion upon 

 this point must be in a great measure conjectured, 

 and cannot well be tested by experiment, as trout 

 will hardly increase in size at all unless free to seek 

 their food and range the water as they please. We 

 believe that a ten-year-old trout may not weigh 

 half-a-pound, or may weigh six pounds, according 

 to the quality and quantity of its food. 



The number of trout a river produces depends 

 upon a variety of natural causes, the principal of 

 which is the spawning accommodation. Eivers in 

 which there are plenty of smooth gravelly stretches, 

 and which receive numerous small tributaries, gene- 

 rally produce numbers of trout shallow water and 

 a gravelly bottom being necessary for the deposit 

 of the spawn. If a river is scantily furnished with 

 spawning accommodation and also with food, the 

 trout will neither be numerous nor large ; the 

 Spey, the Dee, the Esk (Dumfriesshire), and most 

 Highland streams, are examples of this. If the 

 spawning accommodation is deficient and the feeding 

 good, the trout are large, as in most slow-running 

 streams. If the spawning accommodation is good 



