and if it do not turn nimbly, then turn the tail a little to the right or left hand, and try again, till it turn quick. We may add, that the practice of fishing with the artificial minnow is justly discarded by all judicious anglers.

THE GREAT LAKE TROUT.*

It appears that this gigantic trout of the British fresh-water lakes, though never clearly characterized as a distinct species, has at various times excited the attention of Ichthyologists. Trout of enormous dimensions are mentioned by Pennant as occurring in the Welsh lakes; and Donovan gives Loch Neagh in Ireland as another locality. Very large trout have been killed in Ullswater in Cumberland, and still larger in Loch Awe in Argyllshire. We stated elsewhere several seasons back, that the late Mr. Morrison of Glasgow claimed the merit of first calling attention to this fish in the last named locality towards fifty years ago.

"We

doubt very much," says Mr. Stoddart, “the strength of his claims to this discovery; and from enquiries made by us at Dalmally, Cladish, Inveraw, and other parts of the surrounding country, we are led to believe that this species of trout has been well known there from time immemorial; nay, it is impossible but that individuals of the kind must have

* Salmo ferox, Jardine. We were originally indebted for the principal materials of our account of this interesting fish to a manuscript of Sir William Jardine, with which we were kindly favoured by the author. It forms a part of a Series of Memoirs on British Fishesespecially the Salmonida-which that accurate and assiduous naturalist has been for some time past preparing for publication.

been taken centuries ago, during the spawning season, in the Urchay, Awe, and other rivers, by the ancient method of destroying fish with the leister." Now, nobody ever supposed that Mr. Morrison actually invented Salmo ferox, but ourself and others merely desire to insinuate—we do not even assert it positeerely—that the ingenious gentleman in question seems to have been the first to call towards it the attention of modern anglers. That it was killed and eaten by hungry Celts from the earliest ages of the world, is, we doubt not, certain. Indeed, philologists are not wanting who derive the very name of that exposed people from the circumstance of their winter food consisting frequently of Kelts (in Gaelic Ceeoagchghalts), or ill-conditioned fishes of the genus Salmo, including alike the salar, eriox, trutta, fario, ferox. At all events, we grant our "Scottish Angler" that kilts and kelts must have struggled oft for mastery in many a Highland

water.

This huge species attains a weight of from 20 to 30 pounds, and is of great power, even in comparison with its gigantic size. It may be said, indeed, to be by far the most powerful of our fresh water fishes, exceeding the salmon in actual strength, though not in activity. The most general size caught by trolling, ranges from 3 to 15 pounds, beyond which weight they are of uncommon occurThe largest recorded to have been killed in Loch Awe amounted to 25 pounds, and the heaviest we have lately heard of as captured there, was a few ounces under 20 pounds. Mr. Lascelles, from

rence.

Liverpool, was for many seasons an assiduous and successful troller of this species; and indeed it appears that any persevering sportsman is almost certain-with proper tackle to obtain specimens in Loch Awe weighing from 10 to 15 pounds.

If hooked upon tackle of moderate strength, they afford excellent sport; but the general method of fishing for them is almost as well adapted for catching sharks as trout; the angler being apparently more anxious to have it in his power to state that he has caught a fish of a certain monstrous size, than to enjoy the pleasure of the sport itself. However, to the credit of both parties, it may be stated, that the very strongest tackle is sometimes snapped in two by its first tremendous springs. The ordinary method of fishing for this king of trouts is with a powerful rod, from a boat rowing at the rate of from three to four miles an hour, the lure a common trout from three to eight inches in length, baited upon six or eight salmon hooks, tied back to back upon stout gimp, assisted by two swivels, and the wheel-line strong whip-cord. Yet all this, in the first impetuous efforts of the fish to regain its liberty, is frequently carried away for ever into the crystal depths of Loch Awe!

When in their highest health and condition, and indeed during the whole of the time in which they are not employed in the operation of spawning, these fish will scarcely ever rise at a fly. We once saw, however, what we regarded as a middle-sized Salmo ferox (a fine fish weighing between six and seven pounds), taken with a fly by our friend Dr.

Greville in Loch Assynt, where the species is more than usually numerous.* But they certainly seem in general to be almost entirely piscivorous; so that with the exception of night lines baited also with trout-trolling is the only advisable mode of angling for them. The young, however, rise very freely at ordinary lake-trout flies, and are generally caught in this way from one to one and a half pound weight. They occur abundantly near the outlet of Loch Awe.

This noted Salmo ferox appears to be very exclusively a lake species, seldom ascending or descending rivers, or wandering in and out of them, as other species do, and it is never known to migrate to the sea. In autumn and early winter-as we ascertained in Sutherland-they ascend the rivers with a view to spawn; but they do not proceed in this their upward journey, with the determined and far-searching pertinacity of their bright congener the salmon. It has been alleged, that in Loch Awe they spawn along the deep banks of the lake in the neighbourhood of the gorge, and in the gorge itself, where it empties its immense waters, and forms the river Awe. They are said to remain engaged in this operation for two or three months, and at this time their instinctive tendencies are so far changed, that they will rise at large and gaudily dressed salmon-flies, and may be either angled for from the banks, or trolled with a cross line, where the outlet of the lake is narrow. They appear but

* Our last angling party to Loch Assynt killed above a dozen specimens of S. ferox, during a few days, not at all exclusively devoted to the capture of that or any other kind of fish.

seldom either to ascend the rivers which enter the loch, or to descend the Awe itself to any extent, though an occasional straggler has been taken some way down the river. When in good season, and in their strongest condition, they appear to roam indiscriminately through every part of the loch, though there are certain spots which may be more depended upon than others, and where an experienced angler will have little difficulty in hooking one of these fine fish. To their great strength we may observe, that they add unequalled rapacity; and after attaining to the weight of three or four pounds, they seem to feed almost exclusively on smaller fishes,-not sparing even their own offspring, and may be regarded as great an enemy to their smaller companions even as the all-devouring pike. A small trout of this species, not weighing more than one and a half pound, will often dash at a bait not much inferior to itself in size; and instances are recorded of larger fish following with eager eyes, and attempting to seize upon others of their own kind which had been hooked, and were in the act of being landed by the angler. ́It is, we presume, on account of this strong manifestation of a more than usually predaceous disposition that Sir William Jardine has named the species Salmo ferox.*

It is indeed, in one sense, a fish of remarkable

* We believe this great lake trout corresponds to the species previously named Salmo lacustris by Berkenhout, but as the latter title is applied by foreign naturalists to a continental kind, which is not regarded as identical with our own, its adoption might lead at least to the nominal amalgamation of two distinct species, and should therefore be avoided.