THE COMMON TROUT. 
153 
veyed with all haste to the spring-dam. They were all in the highest 
condition when taken, but a few days afterwards I noticed one of them 
having about the gills and fins several white downy-looking excrescences 
(notunlike the hard and pearly tubercles on the stickleback), some of them 
larger than a marrowfat or the most gigantic pea. The general colour 
too of the fish was paler, and its motion through the water dull and 
sluggish ; in a few days it died, as well as two others which were simi- 
larly affected. I have before observed this disease in trout, and in the 
present instance have remarked that the growth of the execrescences is 
very rapid, quite that of a mushroom. I recollect many years ago having 
a little lime put under the arch, between the two dams, and the very 
moment the trout, fifteen to twenty, came to the top, they were plunged 
into a large tub of spring water; yet every one died almost immediately.* 
Note of October loth, 1832. 
Salmo Fario of Dr. Ball’s, with shortupper jaw, just as figured by Yarrell, 
ii. 59. It is seven inches long, opercle very angular and spotted, dorsal 
fin marked over with round black spots, first ray of fin white, as in the 
char, immediately succeeded by a black line, remainder pale grey. The 
upper jaw has a singular appearance, being doubled in with all the 
teeth in it, as if it were perfect. This specimen was taken in a pond at 
Sally Park, near Dublin ; the pond is supplied by a mountain-stream. 
Dublin, note of 1838. 
Deformed trout, taken by R. Callwell, Esq., in a river flowing from 
Loch Ruthen, half an English mile from the lake, one of three hundred 
and twenty taken in three days, during the second week in September, 
1839. 
Trout with malformed head, just as figured by Yarrell, brought to the 
Museum, from a small stream near Doagh, County Antrim, where a second 
one of larger size was also taken, May, 1844. 
In the river at Glenlark, in the Munterloney mountains, County Derry, 
Mr. Sinclaire states that the water and stones are deeply tinged with a 
rust colour, of which the trout likewise partake. Their flesh is very bad, 
and of a metallic flavour, as Mr. Sinclaire and his friends had evidence ; 
so bad are they that the country people will not eat them, and as they 
are not fished for, the river abounds in them. 
March 21 st, 1837, I purchased a beautifully marked trout, which was 
taken with a fly in the river at Whiteabbey, on the northern shore of 
Belfast Bay. 
Its length is fourteen and a half inches. Colour above lateral line, very 
pale yellowish brown, glossed with silvery lilac between the spots, with 
which it is densely covered; these are large, round (no X like figures), 
and rich brown, three spots on posterior part of lateral line are dull red, 
and two below it of this colour ; below the lateral line the spots do not 
extend far, but are close together just beneath it. These spots are rich 
dark brown in the centre, bordered with lighter brown, and each exhibit- 
ing a white ring exterior to this, which gives every spot a beautifully 
ocellated appearance ; colour from lateral line to the belly is a pale yellow- 
ish brown ; belly white, faintly glossed with silver anteriorly ; D. fin very 
much spotted all over ; P. and F. marked with dusky grey and yellow ; 
A. dusky or dark smoke grey, tipped with dull yellow ; C. olive brown ; 
back, when viewed at a little distance, so dark as to appear black. 
Eye, larger than I have seen it in any trout of similar size ; pupil, dark 
* Probably the spring-water was too cold. — R. Ball. 
