JUNE 139 



laid. There are also half a dozen poor little salmon fry, 

 not to mention a misguided grandchild of my own ; but, 

 then, you see, that 'a what comes of my having such a 

 confoundedly wide mouth. I am rather forgetful some- 

 times, and leave it open, and then these things get into 

 it.' But there is no disguise upon the countenance of 

 a ferox. It is seamed with hatred in every line of it ; 

 the huge underhung mouth is an engine of insatiable 

 gluttony ; and the deep-set eyes have exchanged the 

 expression of mild misanthropy you see in those of a 

 young trout for a look of malignant cunning. ' Ah ! ' 

 you may hear him mutter between your knees as 

 you extricate your tackle from his well-armed jaws, 

 wouldn't I like to bite your leg off, you big brute ! 

 Wouldn't I like to have you in a cool ten fathoms of 

 water. / 'd tear you into bloody ribbons before I 'd 

 done with you.' 



The largest lake trout to the capture of which I can 

 personally testify (though I was not the captor) was 

 one of twenty-two pounds taken in Loch Arkaig. 

 Larger ones have been recorded, but not very many 

 of them. To attain such dimensions, or anything 

 approaching them, requires exceptional conditions of 

 depth and space. In waters where food is very 

 abundant, it is true that monsters do manage to exist 

 unmolested long enough to grow to prodigious size ; 

 witness the sixteen pounds trout secured in a dubious 

 way in the Itchen by a labouring man some years ago. 

 But lochs that produce big ferox are invariably both 

 extensive and very deep. These fish must have 



