Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
But we are making slow progress with our intended exposition of Mr
Scrope's beautiful and instructive volume. Although salmon and salmon
streams form the subject and "main region of his song," he yet touches
truthfully, albeit with brevity, upon the kindred nature of sea-trout,
which are of two species--the salmon-trout and the bull-trout. The fry
of the former, called orange fins, (which, like the genuine parr, remain
two continuous years in the river,) greatly resemble the young of the
common fresh-water trout. "Like the grilse, it returns to the river the
summer of its spring migration, weighing about a pound and a half upon
an average."--P. 63. We think our author rather over-estimates their
weight at this early period. Herlings (for so they are also named on
their first ascent from the sea) rarely weigh one pound, unless they
remain for a longer time than usual in salt water. In this state they
bear the same relation to adult sea-trout as grilse do to salmon, and
they spawn while herlings. They afterwards increase about a pound and a
half annually, and in the summer of their sixth year (from the ovum)
have been found to weigh six pounds.[16] Whether this is their ordinary
ultimate term of increase, or whether, having every year to pass up and
down the dangerous, because clear and shallow waters, exposed to many
mischances, and, it may be, the "imminent deadly breach" of the
cruive-dyke, and thus perish in their prime, we cannot say: but this we
know, that they are rarely ever met with above the weight of six or
seven pounds.
[Footnote 16: See Mr Shaw's paper "On the Growth and Migration of the
Sea-trout of the Solway."--_Transactions of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh_. Vol. XV. Part iii. p. 369.]
Of the generation and growth of the other and greater sea-trout (_Salmo
eriox_,) we have not yet acquired the same precise knowledge, but its
history may fairly be inferred to be extremely similar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account