THE SALMON-TROUT. 189 



inches, being then entitled to the name of Salmo 

 trutta. 



This view of the case, we think, accounts, in a 

 reasonable way, for a fact well known to all anglers 

 of sea-trout, and which has puzzled many thought- 

 ful enquirers : viz. that late in spring, and early in 

 summer, the prevailing sea-trout are of larger size 

 than the numerous hordes which seek to enter our 

 river waters during the mid-summer season. Were 

 they all fish of the same year, of course the latest 

 to arrive would be the largest in dimensions ; but 

 as the fact is otherwise, we can only infer, that the 

 more advanced in age are the first to make their 

 appearance: for we cannot reconcile ourselves to the 

 belief, that there are two species of the kind in ques- 

 tion. At the same time, it is important to bear in 

 -mind, that the young of the true salmon in its 

 adolescent state, with numerous promising cadets of 

 the bull-trout family, may occasionally congregate 

 with large travelling parties of sea-trout, properly 

 so called, and thus tend to throw a net of com- 

 plexity over the precise determination of the subject, 

 which it is by no means easy to unravel. Yet we 

 have met with hundreds of people who declared 

 they understood it well in all it bearings, and could 

 explain it perfectly in five minutes. We looked 

 our watch one fine morning about thirty years 

 ago, our cloud of witnesses, in spite of electricity, 

 never came to the point, and we have greatly 

 doubted the perfection of any branch of knowledge 

 ever since. We agree with our friend Lord Mel- 

 bourne that your cut and dry gentlemen, who 

 understand all things, are good for nothing. 



