CH. XXXII. SALMO FEROX — PIKE. 189 



If the fact could be ascertained, I would back a 

 " Salmo ferox " of ten pounds weight to kill more 

 trout in a week than a pike of the same size would 

 do in a month. I never killed a tolerably large 

 trout without finding within him the remains of 

 other trout ; sometimes, too, of a size that must have 

 cost him some trouble to swallow. In fact, I am 

 strongly of opinion that pike deserve encourage- 

 ment in all large Highland lakes where the trout 

 are numerous and small. There is also no doubt 

 that trout follow up the lex talionis, and feed on the 

 young pike as freely as pike feed on young trout. 



There are numberless fine lakes in the interior 

 of the northern counties, situated in wild and 

 sequestered spots remote from roads and tracks, 

 the waters of which are seldom or never troubled 

 by the line of the angler. During my search for 

 the breeding-places of the osprey and other rare 

 birds in the north of Sutherland, I have come 

 upon lakes situated in those rugged wildernesses, 

 and frequently high upon the mountains, where I 

 am confident no human being ever practised the 

 " gentle craft." The only enemies that the trout 

 have in these lonely lochs are the otters who live 

 on their banks, or the osprey who builds her nest 

 on some rocky islet, safely encircled by the cold 

 depths of the surrounding waters. 



