176 SALMON AND TROUT. 
which he saw and weighed himself that was a trifle over nine- 
teen pounds, This was taken from Loch Awe. I remember, 
however, in Windermere, where I used to go out occasionally 
night-trolling for evox, the fisherman would entertain me 
with stories of monster fish taken within his knowledge, be- 
ginning, I think, at about twenty pounds, and progressing night 
after night—perhaps to stimulate my flagging energies—until 
I should say that the limit reached by the chronicle attained - 
something like thirty-five or forty pounds. 
In the neighbourhood of Loch Awe there are also traditions 
of exceeding giants—twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five pounds— 
but these are not to be found in the records of any living 
angler, and when we hear yarns about these leviathans caught 
by the fishermen of a former generation, we are reminded of the 
Scotchman’s retort as to the size of the fish caught by his rivals : 
‘They’re nae bigger fish, but only bigger leers.’ In some of the 
continental and American waters the above weights, exaggerated 
as they doubtless are, are dwarfed by comparison into insignifi- 
cance. Lakes Michigan and Superior abound with monster 
trout of such a size as to set at defiance all attempts to capture 
them with rod and line. One of the smaller sized of these fish 
(weighing only seventy-two pounds !) was, however, actually 
caught by a fisherman in Lake Huron. Some curious facts 
respecting the habits of the Huron trout are mentioned by 
Featherstonhaugh in his ‘ Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor.’ 
*Upon-one occasion,’ he says, ‘Mr. Riddle caught one of the 
great trout of this lake, which when it was drawn up, had a large 
white-fish (Coregonus albus) in its throat, with the tail sticking 
out of its mouth, whilst inside the trout’s stomach were two 
more white-fish, each weighing about ten pounds. In the lake 
of Geneva the trout run also to a monstrous size, but whether 
they are identical with the Salmo ferox is very doubtful. For- 
merly it was supposed that they were, but Agassiz pronounces 
to the contrary., Dr. Henry Bennett, of Mentone, is one of 
the few Englishmen that I know personally who has had any 
sport in trolling for these Geneva trout. His description of 
