ON LAKES, POOLS, ETC. 167 



not in very great esteem. As a matter of sport, he 

 is one of the strongest and gamest fish that swims 

 ■when you have hooked him ; ^ and the killing of a 

 201b. ferox is no light triumph and no easy achieve- 

 ment — a 301b. salmon is a much easier conquest. 

 But they rarely take anything but a trolling bait, and 

 that at long and weary intervals, seldom, indeed, 

 rising to a fly (though I have known them taken 

 with it). Oh, that trolling for the mythic ferox, 

 which has fabled itself to my mind as a species of 

 fresh-rwater kraken ! How many long hours have 

 I spent at it bootlessly ! As a destroyer of fish of 

 his own kind he is scarcely, if at aU, less destructive 

 than the pike, though perhaps a more desirable fish. 

 These very big trout are very apt to make wastes of 

 the water around them. In the management of a 

 lake, the most useful size (if jpossiUe), to permit the 

 common trout to arrive at, is about four or five pounds ; 

 and with plenty of proper food in lakes, they should 

 not be long in arriving at that weight. After this 

 they gi-ow more slowly ; they feed upon their own 

 species more largely ; and it is a question whether 

 they are then really worth their keep. 



^ Ab the excellent and cautious Mrs. Glasse would no doubt have 

 remarked if the subject of Feroxes had been brought uuder her 

 notice, " First hook your ferox.'' 



