THE COMMON TROUT. 193 



every burn and tarn, in every lake and river. It 

 may also be described as one of the most pleasing 

 in its external aspect, for when newly drawn in 

 "golden glory" from some translucent stream, it 

 is a creature of exquisite beauty. The more is the 

 pity it should so often fall a prey to the insidious 

 arts of all-engrossing man. The variation of its 

 tints, according to season and locality, is so great 

 and multiform, that we need not here seek to make 

 these colours known, their general character being 

 no doubt already familiar to all our readers. 



This species varies greatly in size as well as 

 colour,- in accordance probably with the nature 

 and abundance of its food, the strength and depth 

 of the river in which it occurs, and the physical 

 properties of soil and climate. Fish indeed seem, 

 more than most animals, to depend on peculiar and 

 unappreciable circumstances for the full and charac- 

 teristic development of their attributes ; and they 

 consequently exhibit great contrariety of aspect 

 among individuals of the same species. If a canal 

 or reservoir, or any other great accumulation of 

 water, is formed by the hand of man, where the 

 hand of nature had from time immemorial recog- 

 nised only some small and solitary streamlet, the 

 lapse of a very few years produces large and heavy 

 fish, where none but trouts of the most trifling 

 size had eA 7 er been seen before. The writer of 

 these observations kept a minnow little more than 

 half an inch long in a glass tumbler for a period of 

 two years, during which time there was no per- 

 ceptible increase in its dimensions. Had it con- 



