Page:British Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes.djvu/83

SALMON AND TROUT Tay in Scotland, and it is interesting to note that, as recently as October, 1922, a 64 pounder was caught in the same river by Miss J. Ballantine who had to play her fish for nearly two hours. The previous record for a Salmon caught in Scotland by a lady was the 47 pounder taken from the River Spey by Miss Phyllis Spender Clay. My friend Lord Lytton, now Governor-General of Bombay, and a great lover of Nature, once gave me a graphic description of a large Salmon which he hooked in Norway, but which, after he had played it all day, he eventually lost towards evening after several hour's hard work. The line, running for so long a time between his fingers, severed the flesh to the bone, and after such an ordeal I am sure the reader will agree that the distinguished angler-statesman deserved a better reward for his labour.

Trout.—Salmo trutta (Fig. 32). When it is stated that one well-known authority includes no less than twenty or more so-called species of Trout as occurring in British waters, the reader will recognise the difficulties with which an author is confronted in a popular book of this kind. Of the making of species there seems to be no end, and we have little, or no, patience with those who never seem happier than when turning a variety into a species for no apparent reason worth considering. Lists, after all, are poor compensations for life-histories, and the complete story of no one animal or plant has yet been told. Sir Robert Ball once said that " a whole lifetime devoted to the study of the Common Daisy would 67