ISO PAR IN THE TYJSTE. 27 



"banks a school-fellow of my own, now I believe an earl, who, I 

 am sure, would decide this question for me were I to write to 

 him ; and this remark I happened to make whilst enjoying the 

 hospitality of a nobleman as fond of trout and salmon as I am 

 myself. Now it happened that a gentleman who sat beside me 

 at the table was a relation by marriage of my noble school- 

 fellow, and he therefore said that not being quite so busy as I 

 was, he would proceed next morning to the Tyne, and decide this 

 negative point. I heard afterwards that it was decided against 

 me, and that par are to be found in the Tyne. They must be 

 very few. I have angled the Tyne often at various points, and 

 never saw one ; nor met with an experienced angler who had. 

 I had baskets full of trout sent me at various times from East 

 Linton, on the Tyne, caught for me by a most experienced 

 angler, Mr. Ballantyne, but I never saw any parr amongst these. 

 But be this as it may, the Tyne near Hailes Castle affords ex- 

 cellent fishing, and many of the trout, though red-spotted, are 

 excellent eating, having pale rose-coloured flesh. 



As we descend the Tyne to Linton, the portion of the river 

 influenced by the tide is reached : and this point would afford 

 good sport to the angler, were it not almost daily fished by means 

 of a very powerful net which takes everything. Sea trout are 

 frequently caught, and salmon occasionally, but of this I am not 

 quite certain. But that of which I am certain is, that there are 

 taken here, though not very abundantly, a red-spotted trout, 

 with pale rose-coloured flesh, like sea trout, and excellent for the 

 table. I have called it the Estuary trout,* and it is specifically 

 distinct from all others. At the end of the chapter I have 

 briefly sketched its natural history. Its food I have ever found 

 to be the small shrimp, which float in cone-shaped clusters, with 

 the apex towards the back, and against the stream. My friend 

 G-eorge Hunter, of Tynefield, an excellent angler, now fishing for 

 gold in Australia, assured me that occasionally a trout such as I 

 describe, might be taken with a small artificial fly and single 

 hair line, in the river a little lower down and close to the mouth 

 from off the artificial bank at Tynefield. It is not improbable, 



* Knox : MS. 



