288 FISHES. 



we trust our readers will have no difficulty in understanding 

 what is meant. 



Mr. Cowan, whom we largely quote, has probably had more 

 experience of Orkney trout than any other person in these 

 islands, and therefore his notes (however we ourselves may 

 disagree with them) must always carry weight. 



Our own experience, extremely slight, and entirely confined 

 to the island of Kousay, we give further on. First of all we 

 quote Mr. Moodie-Heddle of Melsetter : 



" About Trout, I go even further than Dr. Day about 

 species, and used to have many arguments with Tudor l and 

 Francis Francis thereanent. I believe there are in Orkney, 

 1st, some few stray Salmon which do not breed here ; 2d, a 

 comparatively rare fish, usually running 6 Ibs. to 12 Ibs., with 

 square tail when young, and round when old this I call Bull 

 Trout : 3d, the common sea-trout, the tail of which, even in a 

 12 Ib. specimen, is never more than square, and in the young 

 fish is forked : 4th, the Stenness trout, which have been, like 

 the Loch Leven, a landlocked sea-trout, though now landlocked 

 no longer : 5th, the common Salmo fario in a few lochs : 

 6th, Char in Belial's Water. 



" The fish in most streams are simply young sea-trout, some 

 of which would perhaps never put on silver. I believe myself 

 that, in the north, the Salmo fario and Common Sea Trout 

 could be one made into the other in a few generations." 



We will here let Mr. Cowan speak for himself ; and though 

 his observations may seem to some too sweeping in their 

 character, we ourselves are much more inclined to agree with 

 him than with those who are so ready to make a new species 

 out of every slight variety. 



" As to Trout, my long experience has culminated in a fixed 

 idea or ' fad,' and is so heterodox that you would not benefit by 

 listening to me on the subject. I held ideas in common with 

 the multitude for years on the subject ; now I am certain there 

 is only one trout in Orkney waters, and that, the ordinary fish 

 of the lakes and burns. If the Sea-Trout are debarred from 

 returning to the sea, they soon take the garb of the lake or fresh- 

 1 "Old Wick " of the Field Newspaper. 



