COMMON TEOUT. 
233 
error may have been committed the more readily, because that 
large and voracious fish is found to be an inhabitant of some 
districts, where from its limited size it had not been suspected 
to be found. We will not venture to say how seldom it is 
that the Common Trout will weigh more than a dozen or fifteen 
pounds; but an example of seven or eight is usually sufficient 
to excite curiosity, and those of two or three pounds are of 
more frequent occurrence. The authority of the Prussian 
naturalist Bloch is good for a large part of the continent of 
Europe; and he says that the usual length of the Trout is 
about a foot, with the weight of half a pound, and one that 
amounted to eight pounds was thought to be of such extraor- 
dinary size as to be a fit present for the Elector of Saxony. 
But examples of larger size than this are scarcely uncommon 
in England, where yet they are fished for with eagerness; and 
Sir Humphrey Davy, in his “Salmonia,” quoting Lord Deduu- 
stanville’s edition of “Carew’s Survey of Cornwall,” says that 
when some small river Trout, in length two inches and a half, 
were placed in a newly-made pond, in the second year some 
of them were about twelve inches in length; in the third year 
one measured sixteen inches, and in the fourth year one had 
grown to twenty-five inches. But the shape is much alike in 
all these instances, except as the examples are better or worse 
fed; and yet there occurs such a variety of aspect as to raise 
the belief that differences exist between the fish of different 
waters to such an extent, that a practised eye may be able 
to pronounce from what district each individual has come. 
And this is the case where beyond question the variations are 
of one distinct species; for we leave the more obvious variations 
which have given rise to doubts for subsequent consideration. 
In the example we select for description, which measured a 
foot in length, the head and body are moderately compressed, 
the head proportionally small, the outline rising from the head 
to the dorsal fin, and gradually falling again to the tail; the 
body covered with small scales ; lateral line straight. The jaws 
equal when shut, gape moderate; the mystache reaching back 
to about the middle of the eye, armed with teeth, as are also 
the jaws, round the palate and along the vomer; a prominent 
double row along the tongue; all sharp, incurved. Eye of 
moderate size, rather larger than in the full-grown Salmon or 
VOL. IV. 2 H 
