IRISH LOACH-TROLLING. 17 



creatures to look at ; bad for sport, and worse for the 

 table. Our old friend ferox, notwithstanding his bad 

 name, never makes a beast of himself in this fashion. 

 No matter to what stature he grows, he never, till 

 age overtakes him, loses his noble athletic and 

 artistic proportions. In these characteristic qualities, 

 he vies with salar and trutta themselves. Into rivers 

 or brooks, except for the purpose of making them 

 tributary to the propagation of his young, he never 

 condescends to wander. Even in the lower reaches 

 of rivers discharging into the lakes he inhabits, I have 

 never met him in the summer months. Neither will 

 he answer the calls of inquisitive naturalists who 

 expect to find him at home in small loughs, though 

 contiguous to or connected by stream or river with 

 large ones. Elbow, or more correctly fin-room, he 

 must have, or he will not prosper. There would 

 appear, indeed, a certain ratio always to exist between 

 him and the extent of water he requires. In this he, 

 of course, only conforms to the supposed law of har- 

 mony which is said to prevail between all organisms 

 and external circumstances. But why other little 

 fishes in the same waters do not conform in the same 

 way the philosophers don't tell us. It is probably 

 certain, however, that in lakes less than three miles 

 long, and half that in width, a genuine specimen of 

 ferox will not be found. The physical features, too, 

 of the ample basin he loves to sport in, besides mere 



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