1 62 SALMON AND TROUT. 



Corrib, Mask, and some others ; and, according to Stoddart, 

 also in Lochs Muloch, Corrig, and Assynt in Scotland. 



In a specimen examined by Mr. Yarrell, the number 

 of rays of the back fin was less by two than in the more ordi- 

 nary specimens of the common trout, but the numbers of all 

 the other fin rays, as well as of the vertebrae, were identical. 



Variations and deformities amongst trout have been noticed 

 from time to time which their discoverers have doubtless 

 been pleased to chronicle as separate species ; for instance, 

 there is the Botling, mentioned by Dr. Davy as inhabiting 

 Wastwater, Cumberland, which attains a weight of ten or twelve 

 pounds, and is found in the autumn ascending the lake streams 

 for the purpose of spawning. In form it is short and deep, 

 with the lower jaw much hooked, or curved upwards, and, when 

 full grown, its girth considerably exceeds its length. In the 

 arrangement of its teeth and spots it resembles closely the 

 ordinary trout. 



Another singular variety is the ' hog-backed trout ' of Plin- 

 limmon, a fish not altogether unlike the perch in form, and there 

 is also the deformed trout of Lochdow, Inverness-shire, in which 

 the lower jaw protrudes a long way beyond the upper. This fish 

 was supposed to be confined to Lochdow, but I caught similar 

 trout with the fly in 1862 in a mountain tarn of the same county, 

 called Roy, or Roi, from which the picturesque little salmon 

 river so named takes its source. The elevation of the loch 

 above the sea level is considerable, and its appearance striking, 

 as it is situated directly below an almost perpendicular cliff, at 

 the base of which it forms a sort of lynn or caldron. In some 

 parts it is very shallow but in others the water is black, and 

 apparently of immense depth ; whilst what seems to be the 

 edge of the declivity between the two is bordered, far out in 

 the pool, by a semicircular sweep of bulrushes cut as sharply 

 as if with a knife. 



To the trout of Carraclwddy pools, near Rhayader, has 

 been attributed the singular propensity of croaking indeed, the 

 ' croaking trout of Carraclwddy pools ' are regarded as amongst 



