NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SALMONID^. 149 



return to this river after their first salt-water trip— in other 

 words, that it represents what would be the grilse stage in the 

 true salmon.* 



One reason why the natural history of the bull trout is not 

 so well understood as that of the salmon is doubtless its com- 

 parative rarity ; another is its inferiority both for the market 

 and as a ' sporting fish.' Indeed, Lord Home, who writes with 

 unequalled authority as regards the Salmonidce of the Tweed, 

 has put it on record that in his opinion ' a clean bull trout, in 

 good condition, is scarcely ever known to take fly or bait of 

 any description, and it is the same in the Esk at Dalkeith. ' 

 Lord Home continues : ' I believe I have killed as many — 

 indeed, I may venture to say, I have killed more salmon with 

 the rod than any one man ever did, and yet put them all together, 

 I am sure I have not killed twenty clean bull trout. Of bull 

 trout kelts thousands may be killed.' 



I have been so far more lucky than Lord Home, having 

 caught clean bull trout in good condition, and, indeed, with 

 the marks of the tide hce still on them, not once, but, I may 

 say, scores of times. They will not, however, in my experi- 

 ence, rise to the fly or take the minnow with any degree of 

 readiness, and the bait with which I have had my success has 

 always been a lobworm, used as described under the head of 

 worm fishing for salmon. 



The more common weight of the bull trout is under fifteen 

 pounds, but it is sometimes taken weighing as much as twenty 

 or even twenty-five pounds. When a clean fish of this size 

 happens to be hooked it makes a splendid fight, dashing itself 

 repeatedly into the air and yielding to its fate only after an ex- 

 haustive conflict, in which it is aided by the size and great 

 muscular development of the fins, which are larger than those 

 of the salmon. 



Indeed, although, as observed, in a double point of view 



1 This average is larger than that of the bull-trout grilse in the Tweedi 

 which are said to weigh from 2 to 4 or 5 lbs. Most probably, however, 

 different rivers differ somewhat in this particular. 



