PLATE LXXXV. 
spotted with dirty orange. This enormous fish is the subject repre- 
sented in the annexed plate, and which it was conceived would be 
deemed more interesting than one of the ordinary kind. Another indi- 
vidual of the common Trout, little inferior to this, was formerly pre- 
served in the Edinburgh Museum, the colours of which agreed with 
this, except in being generally darker; die figure and disposition 
of the spots are the same ; this was caught in a small rivulet near 
Edinbugh, and is now in our possession. Besides those, we have 
seen a third Trout of large size, in which the spots were deeper 
red than in either of the former. — The Trouts of the lake of Geneva 
have been long celebrated for their vast size. Gesner relates that 
Trouts three cubits in length have been taken in that lake. 
The flesh of this fish is in high repute for the excellence of its 
flavour. It is has been remarked that the Trout is fat when other fish 
are thin, and meagre on the contrary, when others are fat, so that 
in the winter the flesh is white and of a bad flavour, and in the sum- 
mer red, and good. We may add that this difference in the colour 
of the flesh does not depend on the seasons, having ourselves seen 
Trout both of the red, and white kind, taken at the same season in 
two contiguous streams in Cardiganshire, one of which invariably 
produces the red, and the other the white Trout. Walton says, the 
Trout comes in and goes out of season with the stag and buck, and 
are in high perfection in May. 
Ausonius, who lived in the beginning of the fifth century, seems 
to be considered the first of the ancient writers who has noticed 
the Trout ; he celebrates it for its beauty without adverting to the 
deliciousness of its flesh. Authors of later times speak of it with the 
highest commendation as an article of food, excepting those of a 
