THE TROUT. 39 



firmity attendant on old age, but from want of its natural element 

 water, the severe drought having dried up the spring a circum- 

 stance which has not happened for the last sixty years. His lips 

 and gills were perfectly white, although his head was formerly 

 black, and of a large size. He regularly came, when summoned by 

 Ms master by the name of { Ned/ to feed from his hand, on snails, 

 worms, and bread. This remarkable fish has been visited, and 

 considered a curiosity by the neighbouring country for several 

 years. " 



The progress of trout towards maturity has also been a fruitful 

 topic ot discussion, and, indeed, remains undecided at the present 

 hour. Some contend that they grow comparatively quickly ; others, 

 on the contrary, maintain the opposite notion, and affirm that their 

 growth is singularly slow. Por our own part, we conceive them to 

 be fish of slow growth, and we also imagine that many of them 

 never attain any great size. We advance this opinion on the 

 strength of two or three general facts, which have been repeatedly 

 verified during an experience of forty years 3 standing, and which 

 also may be tested by the experience and observation of every 

 inquisitive angler who will direct his attention to the subject. 



In the first place, in really good streams, you will always find, 

 year after year, the great mass of the fish nearly about the same 

 size, no matter in what particular year you angle, or what kind of 

 bait you employ. We could name twenty trout-streams in England 

 and Scotland, where ten out of every twelve fish caught in all sea- 

 sons will be within an ounce or two of each other. Now, this con- 

 formity among such numerous tribes can only be rationally accounted 

 for on" the supposition that they are of slow growth, and remain 

 long stationary at the same size. If there were always a progres- 

 sive increase going on, even according to the^ most moderate scale 

 of advance, we should not find this uniformity or fixity of bulk ; 

 but we should see trout of all sizes, and this, too, in regular and 

 equal proportions. 



In the second place, we find that large trout are seldom caught 

 in rivers which abound with this fish. A fish of unusual size is 

 one in perhaps twenty thousand and the number of intermediate 

 grades of dimensions is very small indeed. 



And, in the last j)lace, from a careful personal observation of 

 bright, clear rivers, in dry hot seasons, you will perceive that the 

 trout are all about the same size ; and should you detect any rare 

 instances of _ difference among them in point of bulk, you will, 

 perhaps, be inclined to agree with us, that the very diversity is 

 strikingly confirmatory of the slow and almost imperceptible 

 growth of these interesting fish. 



Trout congregate together, and keep up a Regular system of 

 discipline and order among their tribes. This is easily discernible 

 in clear bright streams during fine sunny weather. You will 

 sometimes see a dozen or dozen and a half of trout arranged, 

 according to their sizes, in exact order. The largest of the troop 



