4t) FISH AND FISHING IN SCOTLAND. 



the amount of fine trout in Britain. To me, indeed, it seems 

 quite practicable to stock with these fine trout most of the lakes 

 and even ponds of Scotland, perhaps also of England. They 

 would thrive in the Castle Loch of Lochmaben, and in most of 

 the Highland lakes, where a trout, if not identical, at least 

 strongly resembling that of Loch Leven, already exists. 



Trout come into and go out of season not in so regular a manner 

 as might at first be supposed. Thus the fine grey trout of Loch 

 Leven, the trout I have ventured to call the char trout, come 

 into season as early as December, January, and February ; they 

 are in the primest order as food for man at or soon after Christ- 

 mas, and consequently at a time when all others are quite out of 

 season and unfit for the use of man. I have caught small trout in 

 fche Whitadder as high as Priestlaw, on the 2nd February, in 

 very good order. A heavy snow storm overtook us whilst de- 

 scending the slope of the desolate Lammermoor by Mayshiel to 

 Spartleton, but it cleared away about eleven ; the sun shone out 

 for a brief space, and the gentle trout, small but active, rose 

 readily to the fly. Nor do trout, as summer advances into 

 autumn, all get out of season, although this occurs no doubt to 

 most of them, as well male as female, the increasing of the milt 

 giving rise to the same results on the condition of the male as 

 that of the roe produces in the female. On these points I find 

 amongst my notes many observations, a few of which I quote 

 merely to authenticate the fact. The notes are simply memo- 

 randa of a few days' fishing at various times in the Gala and 

 other rivers. 



On the 20th of August, 1832, eight small trout were caught 

 in the Gala, with the milts greatly enlarged, and advancing 

 towards the spawning condition. 



On the 24th of August, sixty trout were caught in the Whit- 

 adder ; they weighed twenty pounds ; of these there were thirty- 

 nine males and twenty-one females. In twenty of the males 

 measuring ten-and-a-half inches each, the milt was large in 

 nineteen. In eighteen females averaging seven inches in 

 length, the roe was small. I may here remark that the tubercle, 

 or the extremity of the lower jaw of the male, may readily 

 be recognised in the male of all the salmonida3 at every season , 



