NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SALMONIDZ. 149 
return to this river after their first salt-water trip—in other 
words, that it represents what would be the grilse stage in the 
true salmon.! 
One reason why the natural history of the bull trout is not 
so well understood as that of the salmon is doubtless its com- 
parative rarity ; another is its inferiority both for the market 
‘and as a ‘sporting fish.’ Indeed, Lord Home, who writes with 
unequalled authority as regards the Salmonide of the Tweed, 
has put it on record that in his opinion ‘a clean bull trout, in 
good condition, is scarcely ever known to take fly or bait of 
any description, and it is the same in the Esk at Dalkeith.’ 
Lord Home continues : ‘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 killed,’ 
Ihave been so far more lucky than Lord Home, having 
caught clean bull trout in good condition, and, indeed, with 
the marks of the tide lice still on them, not once, but, I may 
say, scores of times. They will not, however, in my experi- 
ence, rise to the fly or take the minnow with any degree of 
readiness, and the bait with which I have had my success has 
always been a lobworm, used as described under the head of 
worm fishing for salmon. 
The more common weight of the bull trout is under fifteen 
pounds, but it is sometimes taken weighing as much as twenty 
or even twenty-five pounds. When a clean fish of this size 
happens to be hooked it makes a splendid fight, dashing itself 
repeatedly into the air and yielding to its fate only after an ex- 
haustive conflict, in which it is aided by the size and great 
muscular development of the fins, which are larger than those 
of the salmon. 
Indeed, although, as observed, in a double point of view 
1 This average is larger than that of the bull-trout grilse in the Tweed, 
which are said to weigh from 2 to 4 or 5 lbs. Most probably, however, 
different rivers differ somewhat in this particular, 
