170 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



the snout to the commencement of the dorsal fin* differs in the two races of sea 

 trout, but some m^easurementsf which have been instituted, have not confirmed 

 this statement, this space was found to equal about 2-| to 2^ (in one large 

 example 2^) in the entire length of the fish. In the anal may be found (see 

 fig. 36, page 163 ante), 3 to 4 unbranched rays, and from 7 to 9 branched ones 

 (a single sewin-grilse in the British Museum from the Rhymney has 10), and this 

 exists in specimens of the salmon-trout of Scotland and the north, whitling and 

 sewin. Thus, clearly showing that as these numbers are susceptible to similar 

 and considerable variations in. all the different races of the sea trout, such cannot 

 be looked on as possessing 'any specific signification.J As regards the caudal fin 

 very great discrepancies exist in the statements of different authors, some of 

 whom advert to the length of the fin rays, and that in a manner which wholly 

 fails when tested on specimens. Thus Parnell remarked that "when the fish 

 reaches the length of 20 inches, the middle ray of the tail is more than half the 

 length of the longest ray of the same fin" (p. 291). Dr. Giinther also remarked 

 of the salmon-trout " the caudal fin is cleft in young examples, in which the 

 longest rays are not quite twice as long as the middle ones;" and in a male 

 specimen 22 inches long, taken in the Firth of Forth, we are told that " the 

 length of the middle rays being not much less than one-half of the length of the 

 longest," &c. These proportions are utterly fallacious if tested on skeletons, but 

 may possibly be intended to refer solely to the'exposed portion of the fin's rays. 

 This fin from being forked in the young becomes gradually square at the end 

 in examples up to 20 inches in length, but more slowly so in some than in others, 

 continuing forked longest (as a rule) in the southern and western race. But in 

 large examples of sea trout it is observed to become rounded, and although 

 Dr. Giinther remarks of the sewin, Salmo cambricus, that it attains the " length 

 of abont 3 feet," its tail fin "is perfectly truncate in adult examples, but never 



* Dr. Giinther (Catal. vi, p. 25) obseryed that in the northern race of sea trout, Salmo tmtta, 

 " the intemeural spine of the first long dorsal ray is attached to the neural of t!^ie seventeenth 

 vertebra." And Dr. M'Intosh in his paper on the " Yellow Fins of the Allan Water," 1872, 

 remarked respecting the bum trout and sea trout, that in specimens " of the same length there is 

 a very appreciable difference in the position of this (dorsal) fin, which is decidedly further forward 

 in the latter — the same variation occurring in the fatty, ventral, and anal, as noticed in the first 

 glance at the fish " (p. 231). 



+ The foUowiag give the proportional measurements made in the distance from the front edge 

 of the snout to the commencement of the base of the dorsal fin. Salmon-trout, male, 20. in. long, 

 2f in the total length; at 16'6 in. long 2-J-, at 16 in. long 2J, at 14-8 in. long 2J, at 12-3 in. 

 long 2J. Sewin, at 15 in. long 2f, at 13-3 in. long 2J, at 13 in. long 2J, at 12'5 in. long 2J, at 

 12-6 in. long 2J. Whitling, at 9-5 in. long 2J, at 8-2 in. long 2i, at S'l in. long 2J, at 7-8 in. 

 long 2J, at 7-5 in. long 2^. White-fish, at 18-4 in. long 2i, at 12-4 in. long 3. Truff, at 8-2 in. 

 long 2J. 



I The following number of rays existing in the anal fin have been attributed by different 

 British Authors. Turton (1807) White Salmon, Salmo phinoc, A. 9, Salmon-trout, S. trutta, A. 

 10, Shewen, S. eriox, A. 12; Fleming (1828) Whitling, S. albus, A. 9, Salmon-trout, 

 S. trutta, A. 11, Sewin, S. eriox (cambricus) A. 10 ; Jenyns (1835) S. trutta, A. 11, S. eriox (cam- 

 bricvs) A. 11 ; Yarrell (1836) S. trutta, A. 10, S. eriox (cambricus) A. 11 ; Parnell (1838) 8. trutta, 

 A. 10, S. eriox (cambricus) A. 10 ; Thompson (1856) S. trutta, A. 9, S. eriox (cambricus), A. 11. 

 In 1866 Dr. Gunther (Catal. vi, pp. 24, 34) attributed to S. trutta A. 11, S. cambricus A. 11-12, 

 which asserted differences in the two races, however, scarcely accord with his text. For at p. 32 

 he observed of a female S. trutta, 27f inches long, from the Tweed, " that the anal fin is 

 higher than long, and consists of twelve rays, the first and second being rudimentary and covered 

 by skin, the third simple and shorter than the fourth, which is branched." 



The Fordwich trout has been alluded to by several authors. Isaac Walton, who wrote in 

 1653, remarked that " there is also in Kent, near Canterbury, a trout called there a Fordidge 

 trout, a trout that bears the name of the town where it is usually caught, that is accounted the 

 rarest of fish ; many of them near the bigness of a salmon, but known by their different colours, 

 and in their best season they cut very white." He Hkewise observed that it lives and feeds nine . 

 months of the year in the sea, and fasts three in the rivers of Fordidge. Yarrell remarked that 

 "the Fordwich trout of Isaac Walton is the salmon-trout (Salmo trutta), and its character for 

 affording rare good meat, besides the circumstance of its being really an excellent fish, second 

 only to the salmon, was greatly enhanced, no doubt, by the opportunity of eating it very fresh. 

 It was formerly the custom to visit the nets at Fordwich every evening, to purchase the fish 

 caught during the night." Dr. Giinther observed, " All the British specimens of Salmo trutta 

 which I have examined (with the exception of the Fordwich trout) are from Scotland." A female 

 specimen 19 inches long, having SO Cfeoal appendages, is in the British Museum. 



