FISHING ANECDOTES. 201 



to see him in my boat ; and having taken him home in 

 triumph, and put him into the scales, he weighed just 

 twenty-two pounds and a-half. He was the shortest 

 and thickest fish that I ever saw, and his dimensions 

 were as follows : From tip of nose to end of tail, 

 thirty-four inches ; round between first and second 

 fins, twenty-one and a-half inches ; round vent, fifteen 

 inches. He was quite the most extraordinary shaped 

 fish I ever saw ; he was as handsome as paint, as 

 they say, and was in all respects a noble fellow. 



This trout was killed on the 2Qth of June, 1842, 

 and the next day, being my eldest daughter's birth- 

 day, we did him the honour of having him for 

 dinner, at which he appeared handsomely garnished 

 with flowers at full length on a board covered with 

 a white cloth, having been boiled in the wash-house 

 copper under the management of my courier, who 

 said there was nothing else that he could possibly 

 get him into. But, alas ! he was not a really good 

 fish to eat, his flesh was a sort of cream colour, and 

 not very firm as one could have expected. Had he 

 been red like a salmon, and of the shape and make 

 he was, he would have been the noblest of fishes ; 

 but as it was, being over twenty- two and a-half 

 pounds, he was, no one can deny, a noble trout. 



