188 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
ones begin to appear, and about the beginning of May the 
liver is full of the salmon fry, which are then four or five 
inches long', and gradually proceed to the sea. About the 
middle of June the earliest fry begin to return again from 
the sea, and are then from twelve to fourteen inches long. 
The growth of this fish is so extraordinary, that a young 
salmon being taken at Warrington, and which weighed 
seven pounds on the 7th of February, being marked with 
a scissars on the back fin, was again taken on the 17th of 
March following, and was then found to weigh seventeen 
pounds and a half. 
The Sea-trout or Salmon-trout, migrates like the salmon 
up several of our rivers, spawns, and returns to the sea. 
The shape is thicker than the common trout. The head 
and back are dusky, with a gloss of blue and green, and 
the sides, as far as the lateral line, are marked with large 
irregular spots of black. The flesh, when boiled, is red, 
and resembles that of the salmon in taste. 
The White Trout appears much of the same nature, and 
migrates out of the sea into the river Esk, in Cumberland, 
from July to September. 
The Samlet is considered by Mr. Pennant as a distinct 
species, and not as the fry of the salmon, a3 some persons 
have supposed. In this case it must be considered as the 
smallest of the trout genus, from which, however, it ma- 
terially differs. It seldom exceeds six or seven inches in 
length. 
The Trout. It is a matter of surprise that this common 
fish has escaped the notice of all the ancients, except Au- 
sonius. It is also singular, that so delicate a species should 
be neglected at a time when the folly of the table was at 
its height; and that the epicures should overlook a fish 
that is found in such quantities in the lakes of their neigh- 
bourhood, when they ransacked the universe for dainties. 
The milts of murcence w'ere brought from one place ; the 
livers of scari from another : and oysters even from so remote 
a spot as Sandwich : but there was, and is still, a fashion 
in the article of good living. The Romans seem to have 
despised the trout, the piper, and the doree; and we believe 
Mr. Quin himself wotild have resigned the rich paps of a 
pregnant sow, the heels of camels, and the tongues of fla- 
mingos, though dressed by Heliogabalus’s cooks, for a 
good jowl of salmon with lobster sauce. 
The colours of the trout, and its spots, vary greatly in 
different waters, and in different seasons ; yet each may be 
reduced to one species. In Llvndivi, a lake in South 
