VARIETIES OF TROUT. 71 



weighs above 60 or 70 Ibs., to the trouts of 

 the little mountain brook or small mountain 

 lake, or tarn, which is scarcely larger than 

 the finger. The smallest trout spawn nearly 

 at the same time with the larger ones, and 

 their ova are of the same size ; but in the 

 large trout there are tens of thousands, and 

 in the small one rarely as many as forty, 

 often from ten to forty. So that in the phy- 

 sical constitution of these animals, their pro- 

 duction is diminished as their food is small in 

 quantity ; and it is remarkable, that the ova 

 of the large and beautiful species which exist 

 in certain lakes, and which seem always to as- 

 sociate together, appear to produce offspring, 

 which, in colour, form, and power of growth 

 and reproduction, resemble the parent fishes; 

 and they generally choose the same river for 

 their spawning. Thus, in the lake of Guarda, 

 the Benacus of the ancients, the magnificent 

 trout, or Salmo fario, which in colour and 

 appearance is like a fresh run salmon, spawns 

 in the river at Riva, beginning to run up for 

 that purpose in June, and continuing to do 

 F 4- 



