53 ' THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS 



about two inches long and getting far more familiar, 

 hundreds of them running to catch any particle of 

 food thrown into the pond. At the age of six months 

 they are about three inches long and thick in pro^ 

 portion, but still the fins large for the size of the 

 fish, and the transverse bars very dark ; they now leap 

 about, and appear well satisfied with both meat and 

 lodgings. From six to ten months their growth is 

 very slow ; the low temperature of the water during 

 winter, and also the scanty supply of food during 

 that time, operate sadly against it, for at the age of 

 ten months we find scarcely any of them longer than 

 three and a half inches. But they now appear more 

 soft in the colour than they do during winter ; they 

 are more light-like, and the transverse bars not so 

 dark and visible as they were previous to this time, 

 for between the ages of two and nine months these 

 bars appear very dark. At the age of eleven months 

 they have quite a different look; the silver coating 

 now has begun to make its appearance, and the bars 

 look less visible; as the scales have begun to cover 

 them, we now see as if looking through a clear glass ; 

 and, on the whole, during the last month they have 

 very much approached to the smolt state. They now, 

 during the twelfth month, change wonderfully, for at 

 the end of it viz., one year from the time they were 

 excluded from the egg we find them completely 

 enveloped in their silver-looking coat, and the cross 

 bars have altogether disappeared ; but at this time 

 they are so tender, and these small scales so loose, 

 that the least thing will rub off the scales as well as 

 injure the fish; they are not at all of that hardiness 

 that we find a small trout under the smolt size that is 

 got in nearly all rivers, about which there has been 

 such an amount of speculation and argument. This 

 trout when full grown is about the size of a salmon 



