FISHES. 289 



water fish, and remain so. I have repeatedly caught yellow 

 trout (perfect), two or three miles from any fresh water con- 

 taining trout, in the sea (pure salt water), and I once caught 

 five ordinary sea-trout in the sea, f Ibs. each, on the tiy, and 

 transported them to a quarry-hole near my house, from which 

 we get the water we need; it was 12 feet deep and 20 yards 

 long by 4 or so wide. These fish lived for a year, all five, then 

 a scamp caught one ; for two years there were still three, but a 

 frost seemed to have caught one in shallow water, and froze it 

 to death ; it was about 1 Ib. in weight, and fat and red-dotted. 

 I fancy there is still one left. At the end of four years I caught 

 one of these and returned it ; then in appearance there was little 

 or no difference from a lake trout, that I or any other judge 

 could pick out. If our lakes have a hard bottom and much 

 long weeds, the fish are usually white-fleshed and ill-fed, of 

 which the whiteness is a symptom. If, on the other hand, the 

 bottom of the lake is carpeted with chora, the fish are always 

 fat and the flesh red, and the stomachs full of flat shell snails. 

 The trout, both sea and lake, spawn about the 13th or 14th of 

 November, with strange precision of date. Many do not find 

 suitable water or places, and don't spawn, and the small lakes 

 are in spring full of voracious kelts, which devour their babies 

 in a serious way, and I suspect a very small number now ever 

 get back to the sea, for every burn has a number of little mills, 

 and none have waterways for any fish to pass, unless in furious 

 spates, which are very uncommon in spring in Orkney." 



Alluding to the fish in the loch of Boardhouse, Mr. Cowan 

 further adds : 



" Of the loch of Boardhouse I have some remarkable things 

 to say. One out of six is red-fleshed ; five are white. All are 

 well fed, all very strong, plucky fellows, but none are good to 

 eat, and all are nasty. The burn runs through stony beaches 

 to the sea, and once in a way bores a big adit, then some sea fish 

 run up, but the next western sea rolls the stones in again." 



The following is a list of the lochs in Orkney which contain 



trout, and for which we are mostly indebted to Mr. Cowan : 



Westray, two Burness and Saintear; Eousay, three 



Saviskail, Muckle and Peerie Waters; Hoy Trout in Orgill, 



T 



