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head, of a pale brown, blotched with black; the teeth sharp and strong, dispersed in the jaws, roof of the mouth, and tongue, (as is the case with the whole genus, except the Gwiniad, which is toothless, and the Grayling, which has none on the tongue ;) the back was dusky, the sides tinged with purplish bloom, both above and below the side line, which was straight and marked with deep purple spots, mixed with black. The belly was white; the first dorsal fin was spotted; the spurious fin brown, tipped with red; the pectoral, ventral, and anal fins of a pale brown; the edges of the latter white; the tail very little forked when extended.

Some peculiar remarks upon the various sorts of Trout in the Northern Counties of England, and of their Growth and Age, have been given by a very experienced Angler, to the following effect:-That he does not undertake to determine whether the River and Burn Trout are of one Species: in many points the Trout taken out of the same river and same pools will agree, and in some shall vary; so that, if the difference were owing to the water or food he could say nothing against their being of one species: he believes they spawn promiscuously together, are all similar in shape, in the number of their fins, and their fins being disposed in the same places. Whether the colour of the spots makes any specific variety, he leaves to the decision of Naturalists; but, in his opinion, the so much esteemed Charr, both red and white, is only a Meer or Marsh Trout, and the Colour perhaps owing to the Sex. In several of the Northern rivers he has taken Trouts as red and as well tasted as

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any Charr, and whose bones, when potted, have dissolved, like those of the Charr. That about Michaelmas he had caught Trouts of a copperish hue, without spots; the flesh, when dressed, was like Bees-wax, and well tasted: that likewise in April he took one of these Trouts twenty-eight inches long, and thick in proportion, which boiled yellow, but was equally good; and this he thinks was the Bull-Trout mentioned by WALTON, and several Authors, as extraordinary both for its size and goodness, and to be found no where but in Northumberland. He re

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cords a still larger fish caught in the same river (the Cocquet) by him in September, near Brenkburn Abbey; the length, which was nearly a yard, did not strike this Gentleman so much, as the bright spots upon the lateral line; by which it appeared to him to be an overgrown Burn Trout, and neither a Salmon, Salmon-Trout, nor the same with those two he thought were the Bull-Trout.

WALTON mentions the Fordwich Trout, taken in the river Stour, of which only one instance was ever known of its being caught by the Angle: it is said to be delicious eating: one weighing twenty-six pounds, and of a most beautiful colour, was taken with a Net in December 1797; they grow to a larger size.

Another Trout in Northumberland (called the Whitling) the former Gentleman describes as being from twelve to twenty inches long, shaped exactly like the Salmon, and being red and high flavoured as the Charr; he has taken many of them with the fly, and with night-lines, in the Tweed and the Wensbeck, but never with any Spawn in them, which induced

him to consider them Salmon Smelts, that had been to the Sea and returned to the fresh water in the same Summer, and which the following Spring would be what is termed a gilse, or year old Salmon: none of them had spots either red or black, which the Burn and Salmon Trouts have; but the Fishermen of the Tweed flatly contradicted his Suggestions, by positively affirming that none were ever known to grow above twenty inches long.

The Burn or River Trout, he says, with plenty of food and good water, grows rapidly: several Experiments were made in ponds fed by river water, and some by clear springs, into which the young fry have been put at five or six months old, (that is, in September or October, reckoning from April, when they first come from the spawning beds,) at which time they will be six or seven inches long: in eighteen months the change has been surprising: he has seen a pond drained ten months after being thus stocked, which was in July, when the fish were fifteen months old; some were fifteen or sixteen inches, others not more than eleven or twelve: the fish were returned into the pond, and it was again drained the March following, when some were twenty-two inches, and weighed three pounds; others were sixteen inches, and some not more than twelve. To what, asks this Gentleman, can we attribute this difference? In water, food, and weather, they all fared alike: his opinion is, that the fry were the produce of Trouts of various ages, and that the older and larger the parents the more speedy is the growth of their Off spring.

He is certain that Trouts, in a good pond, will grow much faster than in some Rivers; and from the accurate observation of a Gentleman, who kept them in Ponds to ascertain the progress and duration of their Lives, he asserts, that at four or five years they are at their full growth, which in some was thirty inches, in many considerably less; that for three years they continued with little Alteration in their size or goodness; two years after the Head seemed to be en larged, and the Body wasted, and in the winter after that change they died. According to this computation, nine or ten years are the term of their Existence; possibly that may be prolonged, and their bulk increased, when they have liberty to go into the Tide way and Salt water.

Of the Gillaroo Trout (the inhabitants of certain lakes in IRELAND) mention has been made in the account of the Waters of that Country,

In some rivers, Trouts begin to spawn in October, but November is the chief month; the end of September they quit the deep water to which they had retired, during the latter part of the hot weather, and make great efforts to gain the source of the Currents, (they also swim up brooks, where they are too often destroyed by the poacher, who is always upon the watch, and is sure to cause terrible, havock at this Season,) seeking out proper places for spawning: this is always upon a gravelly bottom, or where gravel and sand are mixed among stones, towards the

*Mr. TOOMER, of Newbury in Berkshire, used to keep Trouts in Stews, and fed them to a very great Size in a short time,

end and sides of a stream and in lakes, &c. where the bottoms are gravel, among weeds, where they make themselves beds and deposit their Ova; (they are very prolific, and the spawn is most eagerly sought after and devoured by the Grayling;) at which 'period they turn black about the head and body, and become soft and unwholesome; in fact, they are never good when big with roe, which is contrary to the nature of most other fish: after spawning they become feeble, their bodies wasted, and those beautiful spots, which before adorned them, are imperceptible; their heads appear swelled, and the eyes dull, (and Mr. PENNANT says, the under jaw is subject, at certain times, to the same Curvature as that of the Salmon). In this state they seek still waters, and continue there sick, it is supposed, all the Winter; a prey also to Vermin, which breeds upon and keeps them poor. Thus does "the Monarch of the Brook" pass nearly one-fourth of his Existence, until roused from his torpor by the returning Spring. It is to be remembered, that in all Trout rivers there are some barren Female fish, which continue good all the Winter.

In March, or if mild open weather, in February, Trouts begin to leave their winter quarters, and approach the shallows and tails of Streams, where they cleanse and restore themselves to Health: as they acquire strength, they advance still higher up the Rivers, until they fix upon their Summer residence, for which they generally choose an eddy, behind a stone, a log, or bank that projects forward into the water, and against which the Current drives; whirlpools and holes into which sharps and shallows fall,

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