IRISH LOACH-TROLLING. 15 



ject is oiie which will be approached with greatest 

 caution by those who are most deeply impressed by 

 its extent and complexity. At a moment, indeed, 

 when the very principles and methods to be pursued 

 in the investigation are called in question, and keenly 

 disputed by the ablest minds, the prudent observer 

 will pause ere he mingles in the conflict. Anato- 

 mical research, which superseded the systems of 

 classification by external characters alone, and which 

 was long considered to rest on a firm basis, has failed 

 in its turn to satisfy the objections of later discoveries. 

 Either of these methods, or both combined, may be 

 usefully employed in the discrimination of living 

 beings one from the other, not because they meet 

 the requirements of every case, but because we know 

 no better at present. Till the exigencies of an exact 

 science then are adequately worked out, it must 

 suffice to assume here that there is such a being as 

 the Great Lake trout, distinct from the other species 

 and varieties of the genu-s. I would however, in 

 limine, object to the very improper liberty taken with 

 one of my earliest piscine acquaintances in giving 

 him the inappropriate specific name of ferox; for 

 I can safely aver, from long familiarity with him, 

 that he is neither savage nor ferocious, except 

 indeed when he resents the prick of a fish-hook, 

 or the too close proximity of a landing-net to his 

 nose. We swam the same waters together from 



