46 TROUT AND SALMON PARR. 



margin than those of the salmon, which may assist to 

 distinguish the difference between them at this early 

 period, but this is far from being so characteristic and 

 reliable a mark as the adipose fin. The bar marks in 

 the trout parr are also more numerous, narrower, and 

 placed more closely together than in the salmon parr. 



Trout are found to differ considerably in proportions, 

 colour, and size, in different rivers and lakes, and even 

 in different parts of the same river, according to the 

 quality of the water, and the nature and abundance of 

 their food. As witness the great disparity in size and 

 colour between the little sable tenants of the mossy 

 moorland becks, of four or five inches in length, and 

 two or three ounces in weight, and their crimson-starred 

 portly brethren of the lowland river, weighing nearly as 

 many pounds. The average size of adult trout in most 

 rivers may be said to vary from eight or nine to sixteen 

 inches in length, and from half a pound to a pound and 

 a half in weight. A well-proportioned trout of a pound, 

 or three quarters of a pound, is a good fish ; and there 

 are many more below that weight than above it. 



Although numerous instances are on record of com- 

 mon river-trout of immense weight being sometimes met 

 with in the well-fed waters of the south of England, 

 they must be considered upon the whole as rather rare, 

 and an industrious angler may consider it quite an 

 epoch in his life if he is fortunate enough to capture a 

 real salmo fario of three or four pounds in weight. 



The largest common trout I have ever heard of was 

 one captured at Drayton Manor weighing 22J Ibs., 



