IRISH LOACH-TROLLING. 17 
creatures to look at ; bad for sport, and worse for the 
table. Our old friend ferox, notwithstanding his bad 
name, never makes a beast of himself in this fashion. 
No matter to what stature he grows, he never, till 
age overtakes him, loses his noble athletic and 
artistic proportions. In these characteristic qualities, 
he vies with salar and trutta themselves. Into rivers 
or brooks, except for the purpose of making them 
tributary to the propagation of his young, he never 
condescends to wander. Even in the lower reaches 
of rivers discharging into the lakes he inhabits, I have 
never met him in the summer months. Neither will 
he answer the calls of inquisitive naturalists who 
expect to find him at home in small loughs, though 
contiguous to or connected by stream or river with 
large ones. Elbow, or more correctly fin-room, he 
must have, or he will not prosper. There would 
appear, indeed, a certain ratio always to exist between 
him and the extent of water he requires. In this he, 
of course, only conforms to the supposed law of har- 
mony which is said to prevail between all organisms 
and external circumstances. But why other little 
, fishes in the same waters do not conform in the same 
way the philosophers don’t tell us. It is probably 
certain, however, that in lakes less than three miles 
long, and half that in width, a genuine specimen of 
Jerox will not be found. The physical features, too, 
of the ample basin he loves to sport in, besides mere 
Cc 
