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larger: the grayling is also very fond of devouring their 
eggs. In spawning-time they may be taken with the 
hand. 
In places where the trout-fishery is abundant, as in 
mountainous countries, and where they do ,not find an 
immediate market for them, they pickle them like salmon, or 
salt them like herrings. 
The common trout is a fish universally known in this island, 
for the delicacy of its flesh, for the sport it affords to the 
angler, and for the superior beauty of its colours. The 
colours of the trout vary greatly in different waters: in 
Llyndivi, a lake of South Wales, are trouts marked with red 
and black spots, as large as sixpences. In Loch Neagh, in 
Ireland, and Hulse Water, in Cumberland, it is said there are 
trouts taken, which weigh about thirty pounds. These are 
probably of the same species with the celebrated trout of the 
lake of Geneva. The size alone of these fishes can recom¬ 
mend them ; for in taste and flavour they are all inferior to 
our common river-trout. In the Italian rivers the trout 
abounds, and in all probability did so at the time when the 
Romans were transporting oysters from Sandwich, and the 
livers of the scari from the coast of Africa. 
The trout is taken in many small rivers of the New 
Marches, in Prussia, in which country they are kept in 
ponds; also in the mountainous parts of Silesia, and 
particularly about Dantzick. They are very rare in the 
Seine, because the water is too mild and still; but they are 
found in the waters of the Pyrennees more than 2000 feet 
above the level of the sea. They can swim with wonderful 
rapidity against the stream in search of cooler water; but if 
caught in summer where the water is hot, and put quickly into 
a reservoir that is very cold, the sudden change kills them 
presently. 
The flesh of the trout is tender and well-tasted, and the 
colder the water wherein it has lived, the better it eats: at the 
source of the Orbe, which comes from a rock in the canton 
of Berne, trouts are taken which have the taste of lobster, 
and surpass all others, especially if dressed as soon as they 
are caught. The trout is fat when other fish are lean, and 
lean when they are fat; so that in winter its flesh is white 
and ill-tasted, but in summer red and tender. 
The interior conformation is the same as in the first 
species; only the skin of the stomach is much stronger, and 
this circumstance is observed to be no where so remark¬ 
able as in those found in some of the Irish lakes, and par¬ 
ticularly in those of the county of Galway. These are 
called gillaroo-trouts: on the most accurate examination, 
however, it does not appear that they are specifically dif¬ 
ferent from the common trout: but by living much on 
shell-fish, and swallowing small stones at the same time, their 
stomachs acquire a much greater degree of thickness, and a 
kind of muscular appearance, so as to resemble a sort of 
gizzard. The vertebrae also are 60 in number, and the ribs 
30 on each side. The eggs are of an orange colour, and as 
big as pease, standing in rows; their size is the more 
remarkable, as in the largest fish, the silurus and the sturgeon, 
they are never bigger than a grain of millet. The eggs when 
dressed make a nice dish for the table; they are also used as 
a bait for the grayling; their colour is so lasting, that they 
have been kept for three years in spirits of wine without 
losing their brightness. 
Bloch gives the following directions for the breeding of 
trout in places where they are not natural to the country. 
To form a trout-pond, there requires, 1. Water clear and 
cold, with a bottom of sand or flints. 2. Springs, or a 
stream that will bring a continual supply of fresh water ; if 
it be a rivulet, it should be such as runs through cool shady 
places, or not having a distant source, otherwise the water 
in summer becomes too hot before it reaches the pond. 3. 
The banks should be high, or the trout, which loves to leap, 
may fall over on the ground, and die, 4. The pond should 
be surrounded with large trees, which give a coolness to the 
water. 5. There should also be at the bottom some roots 
of trees, or large stones, among which the fish may cast 
their spawn. - 6. Great floods should- be guarded against 
either by a trench or some other means; and care should.be 
taken particularly, that the drains which run into it do not 
bring down the dirty and muddy waters of the hard rains. 
7. The pond should never be less than from seven to ten 
inches deep. 8. You must provide them sufficient nourish¬ 
ment: as trouts are carnivorous, you should-throw in fish 
which live in the same kind of water; the best for the pur¬ 
pose are gudgeons, and some of the smaller species 6f carp; 
for want of these, hashed liver, entrails, cakes made of 
bullock’s blood and barley. In winter-time, you must 
break the ice to give them breath, the same as for carp, and 
with the same precautions. Lastly, the mouth of the pond 
should be guarded with narrow iron grating, that the young 
fry may not escape; and take care to keep away rapacious 
fishes, waterfowl, and frogs.—As for the size of the pond, 
sixty fish may be allowed for an acre. 
M. Jacobi discovered a curious method of breeding trout 
and salmon. He had a trough twelve fett long, one foot 
and a half wide, and eight inches deep. At top, where the 
water was to run, a piece of wood was fastened across, with 
a hole in the middle six inches long and four wide. In the 
lower board was a hole four inches square, to let the water 
run. Both holes were closed with wire grating, so that the 
young fry could not escape. To hinder the ingress of rats, 
or other destroyers of fish, the trough had a cover with holes. 
The bottom was covered with gravel; and the vessel was 
placed in such a manner that the water might run in above, 
and run out below when it rose about two inches above the 
gravel. This being done, he took the males and females in 
spawning time, and by squeezing their bellies let out the ova 
and the smelts: these he put together into a small vessel of 
water, and stirred them about with his hand to mix them ; 
then they were put into the trough we have been speaking 
of. M. Jacobi says, that if the eggs, &e. are left exposed 
for five weeks to the running of a good stream, the fish will 
of themselves break with their heads the skin that confined 
them in the egg, and, after moving about for an hour, a 
large aperture is seen, out of which they can thrust their 
belly, which is as large as the yolk of the egg: after this, 
they remain quiet for two days; and for the first three or 
four weeks they live on the yolk of the egg, which is still 
enclosed in their belly, so that the yolk diminishes in pro¬ 
portion as the fish grows; then it is time to put them into a 
larger place with the water in which they were hatched. 
“But,” says Bloch “though M. Jacobi says they come out 
of the egg head-foremost, and bring the yolk with them, 
this peculiarity does not seem to me to be likely, as in ge¬ 
neral their nature must be the same with, all other fishes that 
have scales.’’ 
■ The brown trout. This beautiful trout is a variety of 
the preceding; it differs not only in colour, but also in its 
haunts. The head is larger, and of a dark brown. When 
the mouth is shut, the upper jaw protrudes a little; and both 
jaws are armed with sharp teeth, as well as the palate and 
tongue. The iris is blue; the pupil black, edged with red. 
The back is round ; and the sides are brown as far as the 
lateral line, and spotted, as well as the head, with violet; 
below the line, the sides are of a yellowish white, with red 
dots on a brown ground, and encircled with white. The 
belly is white, and larger than the foregoing. It has the 
same number of rays in the membrane of the gills and in 
the fins, except the tail, which has few more, and is con¬ 
sequently larger. Its colour in general is brown; yet the 
ventral, anal, and tail fins, have a mixture of yellow'. 
They prefer the shade more than the common trout; ahd 
Bloch says they are better tasted also. According to Pon- 
topidan, the brown trouts of Norway, when pretty well 
grown, leave the small streams, and go into the North sea. 
6. Salmo erythrinus, or the red trout.—Specific Character. 
Scarlet ocellate spots on the body, jaws equal. Twelve rays 
in the membrane of the gills, 10 or 12 in the dorsal fin, 13 
in the pectorals, 9 or 10 in the ventrals, 11 in the anal, 19 
in the tail. 
Inhabits 
