ANGLING FOR OUANANICHE 81 



to the lake. This, however, is not likely, since trout quite resem- 

 bling those of Leven are found in many Northern lakes. The flesh 

 is of a fine pink color, the eating admirable. During summer and 

 autumn, when examined (and I have opened hundreds to ascertain 

 the fact) the trout has its stomach filled with flies and insects, the 

 ordinary food of the common river-trout; but, in addition, it is often 

 found to have been living on a small buccinum, or fresh- water whelk, 

 with which the shallow waters of the lake abound." 



This ouananiche-like fish must not be confounded 

 with another resident of Loch Leven also distinct 

 from the common river- trout called by Dr. Knox the 

 char-trout, and which lives on entomostracce, and comes 

 into season in December, January, and February. 

 The Loch Leven trout proper, like the ouananiche, 

 resemble the salmon in their habits ; for in autumn, 

 or at the approach of winter, they leave the lake for 

 the streams which feed it, returning, no doubt, early 

 in spring. The splendid peculiarities of this near 

 Scotch relative of the Canadian ouananiche were not 

 unknown to Sir Walter Scott, who introduces the sub- 

 ject of the Loch Leven trout in Chapter XXIY. of The 

 Abbot, in an ideal conversation between Queen Mary 

 Stuart and Roland Graeme, as follows : 



" With the peculiar tact and delicacy which no woman possessed 

 in greater perfection, she [Queen Mary] began to soothe by degrees 

 the vexed spirit of the magnanimous attendant. The excellence of 

 the fish he had taken in his expedition, the high flavor and beau- 

 tiful red color of the trout which have long given distinction to 

 the lake, led her first to express her thanks to her attendant for so 

 agreeable an addition to her table, especially upon a jour de jeune ; 

 and thus brought on inquiries into the place where the fish had 

 been taken, their size, their peculiarities, the times when they were 

 in season, and a comparison between the Loch Leven trouts and 

 those which are found in the rivers and lakes of the south of Scot- 



