THE SCOTTISH ANGLER. 



stomach, in which are generally found numbers of small 

 shell-fish. This circumstance, however, does not pre- 

 vent it from rising at the fly, of which also it seems pe- 

 culiarly fond. 



We come now to treat of the great river trout, pro- 

 perly called the bull-trout, which species is imagined 

 by many anglers to be nothing more than an overgrown 

 individual of the common sort. This we are greatly 

 inclined to believe; for it is noticeable, that although 

 killed during the spawning season in rapid streams, it 

 properly inhabits deep still places, such as nourish fish 

 easily and quickly. Besides, there is no detecting of 

 any thing like what is called the bull-trout under several 

 pounds weight; unless, then, it be the overgrown com- 

 mon river trout, what has become of its own species in 

 a smaller state ? For, be it observed, it has no ne- 

 cessary connection with salt water, like the salmon, 

 but, as in Clyde, is often found above lofty linns and in- 

 surmountable waterfalls. 



We lately saw a fish sent to a gentleman in Edin- 

 burgh from one in Peebles, weighing eighteen pounds, 

 and reckoned to be a fine specimen of the bull-trout. 

 It was evident, however, that it had lately left the sea, 

 also that it was singularly small in the head, and 

 marked precisely like the salmon on either gill ; in fact, 

 that it totally belied the usual characteristics of a large 

 bull-trout, covered over with an extraordinary num- 

 ber of spots, and was neither more nor less than a 

 fine specimen of the salmo truita. Another of the 

 same sort we since saw taken from the Carron in Ross- 

 shire, weighing above twenty pounds. It was de- 

 cidedly a very different fish from the common salmon, 

 being broader in the shape, coarser in the texture, more 

 wormy about the gills, and furnished with a boar-snout 

 singularly turned up. This, of course, had come di- 



