202 
PEAL. 
always male and the Sewin female, from which he has con- 
cluded that there is no more than a sexual difference between 
them.” But, (setting aside for the present this last surmise, 
and the further question about the Branlin, whether it he 
what is now tenned the Salmon Parr, or the Parr of the 
Sea Trout, or, again, the Samlet, of which it would be still 
surprising if none hut males are to be met with, in the 
numerous examples of the Peal which I have obtained in a 
long succession of years, as well from far off in the ocean as 
the river,) I have not been able to ascertain the existence of 
a single male, and that, too, although the search has been 
made under favourable circumstances, and with the offer of a 
considerable reward to a professional fisherman who possessed 
an exclusive right to a fishery where these fish were taken in 
abundance in their season. But an accidental circumstance 
has removed my doubts as regards the sexes of this fish. 
There was a pool in the western branch of the Looe River, 
close below the head of an ancient weir, above the harrier 
of which these fish were not able at this time to throw 
themselves j and at this place on the 22nd. of January, when 
the cold was severe, a considerable number of Peal were 
discovered as they were engaged in stirring up the gravel 
with the evident purpose of shedding their spawn, and that, 
too, without there being a single Salmon in the river. The 
whole, or greater part of these were caught with a net, and 
then the roe was found to be running from some of them, 
and ready to be shed in all. Myself examined ten of 
them, and the remainder, amounting to twenty in all, were 
examined by others. They varied something in colour from 
their ordinary appearance in summer, being a little darker, 
and a few were almost bronzed at the sides; but all were 
females, and there was only one male found among them, 
which, however, had its tail excoriated, like that part in the 
females, as having been engaged in the same work of stirring 
the gravel for the reception of the spawn. This male fish, 
which from its associations I cannot but conclude to be the 
true male of the Peal, was yet sufficiently distinct to warrant 
a distinct description. It was called by the fishermen a Bull 
Trout, and had its under jaw hooked, as in the male Salmon, 
the head more clumsy than in the Peal, the spots large. 
