THE SALMON FAMILY. 303 



" The Biill-Trout has increased in numbers in the Tweed 

 prodigiously within these last forty years, and to that in- 

 crease I attribute the decrease of Salmon-Trout or Whit- 

 ling, — for the Whitling in the Tweed was the Salmon- 

 Trout, not the young Bull-Trout, which now go by the 

 name of Trouts simply. The Bull-Trout take the river at 

 two seasons. The first shoal come up about the end of 

 April and May. They are then small, weighing from 2 to 

 4 or 5 lbs. The second, and by far the more numerous 

 shoal, come late in November. They then come up in 

 thousands, and are not only in fiue condition, but of a 

 much larger size, weighing from 6 to 20 lbs. The Bull- 

 Trout is an inferior fish, and is exactly what is called, at 

 Dalkeith and Edinburgh, Musselburg Trout. ... A clean 

 Bull-Trout, in good condition, is scarcely ever known to 

 take fly or bait of any description. It is the same in the 

 Esk at Dalkeith. 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 kUled. 



" The great shoal of Bull-Trout not taking the river till 

 after the commencement of close-time, are in a great mea- 

 sure lost both to the proprietor and the public." 



The more common weight of the Bull-Trout is under 

 15 lbs., but it is sometimes taken weighing as much as 

 20 lbs. When a clean fish of this size happens to be 

 hooked it makes a splendid fight, dashing itself repeatedly 



