TROUT-FISHING 

 forms in their ovaries at the usual season. Accordingly I have kept 

 up the stock by turning in trout nearly every year since the beginning; 

 with this result, that whatever outward difference might be apparent 

 in the fish at the time they were turned in, after two seasons, at most, 

 it becomes absolutely impossible to tell from their external ap- 

 pearance to what variety they originally belonged. Whether they 

 had been small trout from a neighbouring stream, distinguished 

 by conspicuous red spots, very distinct parr -markings and a. pre- 

 dominance of yellow in their colouring, or other small trout much 

 darker and less shapely from a more distant stream, or Loch Leven 

 trout {Salmo levenensis of Gttnther) — all assume, when in prime con- 

 dition, a very silvery appearance, with not more difference among 

 them than is apparent among sheep of the samie flock. Fingerling 

 trout which, if left in their native burn, would never have weighed 

 a third of a pound, grow rapidly under the favourable conditions of 

 this little loch to three and four pounds in weight. The deposit of 

 guanin under the scales is so uniform as to supply a complete dis- 

 guise; the parr -marks completely disappear; so do most or all of 

 the red spots; and I have taken some which, had the loch possessed 

 any practicable connexion with the sea, I should have pronounced 

 without hesitation to be salmon -trout."* 

 Among the varieties of British fresh -water trout there is none of which 

 Ichthyologists of the old school and anglers are so reluctant to surrender 

 the specific rank as the great lake trout, classed as Salmo ferox. It was 

 long considered to inhabit only certain deep lakes in the Highlands and 

 in Ireland; but, in fact, there is a pool in the Test at Broadlands which 

 receives a liberal supply of organic refuse from the town of Romsey, 

 whence every season one, two or three monster trout are fished out with 

 bait. I have seen several of these great trout weighing from 8 lb. up to 

 13 lb., any one of which was indistinguishable from Salmo ferox in a 

 Highland loch. (See Plate IV, Fig. 1.) 



Exactly similar trout I have seen taken from the river Moratcha in 

 Montenegro, flowing into the Lake of Skutari. They inhabit that great 

 lake, feeding on shoals of scoranze, a species of bleak, just as salmon 

 inhabit the ocean, feeding on shoals of herring. Like salmon when full 

 fed, they ascend the rivers in spring and summer. I went to Podgoritza 

 one April to try and catch some of these great trout, but it was too early 



"Brilish Frtih-Wattr Fisk (Woburn Library Series), p. 259. 



p 105 



