VARIETIES OF SALMON. 131 



HAL. I have never been able to identify 

 more than the salmo salar, or salmon, and 

 salmo trutta, or sea trout, in the rivers of 

 Britain and Ireland. The whitlings I believe 

 to be the young of the sea trout. A sea 

 trout which I saw in Ireland, called a bull 

 trout, was of the same kind as these you see 

 here, but fresh water trout are sometimes 

 carried in floods to the sea, and come back 

 larger and altered in colour and form, and 

 are then mistaken for new species : and as 

 each river possesses a peculiar variety be- 

 longing to it, this, with differences depend- 

 ing upon food and size, will, I think, account 

 for the peculiarities of particular fish, with- 

 out the necesity of supposing them distinct 

 species. I remember many years ago, the 

 first time I ever fished for salmon in spring 

 in the Tweed, I caught with the fly, one fine 

 morning in March, two fish nearly of the 

 same length : one was a male of the last 

 season, that had lost its melt; the other a 

 female fresh from the sea. They were so 

 unlike, that they did not appear of the same 

 species : the spent or kipper salmon was long 

 K 2 



