SALMON AND SEA TROUT FISHING. 229 



the other hand, seldom attain more than six or seven 

 pounds weight. They abound in nearly every beck and 

 burn, loch and river of Scotland and Ireland, and are 

 readily taken with the fly. We have already adverted to 

 their gameness: the bold dash, wild leap, and game fight 

 are more or less exemplified wherever they may be found. 

 The rivers most noted for these fish are the Spey, Don, 

 Tay, and Tweed. The peal, or salmon peal, as it is 

 termed, is the grilse stage of these fish, as it is also of the 

 SB WIN (S. Cambrians), which species, though chiefly 

 found in Wales, is also abundant in several southern 

 rivers of England. This fish is closely allied to the sea, 

 white, or salmon trout. It has the delicate coloring of 

 the salmon parr, the prevailing hue being a pale slate 

 blue, which graduates from the dull black upon the back 

 to the pure chaste white of the breast, the broad expanse 

 of the side being profusely spotted with black, and oc- 

 casionally red; the latter about the lateral line. Sewin, 

 in common with the whole species, are subject to great 

 variety of tint, the action of fresh water causing them, 

 after a protracted stay, to assume somewhat the color of 

 the ordinary brown trout.* Commercially the sewin is 

 not nearly so important a fish as the salmon . trout. Its 

 flesh is generally preferred as an article of diet, but it is 

 not so plentiful as its northern relative. The whole mi- 

 gratory body of the salmonidae family flourish infinitely 

 better in the more northern than in temperate regions. 

 The salmon of Norway, and even so far north as Iceland, 

 attain much greater dimensions than the natives of more 

 southern latitudes. The sewin is far less vigorous than 

 other members of the same family, and when its instincts 

 prompt it to ascend the rivers to attain the requisite 



* This peculiarity has been observed in the American sea trout. The 

 alternation of color from a bright silver, their sea livery, to the darker 

 shades and even to the vermilion spots of the trout of the brooks, has 

 been attested by observant anglers. 



