FISHES of Holme Lacy says he took one of 15 lb. weight some years ago plentifully sprinkled with large dark spots, like a trout's, even on the gills, but they are certainly not common. Yet these evidence occasional crossing. 16. Sea Trout. Salmo trutta, Linn. Rarely taken : chiefly found in the Chepstow waters, and in the tideway. 1 7. Common Brown Trout. Salmo fario, Linn. This non-migratory species is well known in the Wye and all the tributary streams ; it is deemed best in the Arrow, and least best in the Monnow. Pisciculture has proved that brown trout sometimes fructify salmon ova, and vice versa ; and Sir Richard Harington mentions that hybrids are to be seen and taken all the year round in the Teme. These I believe to be rare and more accidental than common ; they are no doubt found breeding at the same times and seasons as Sa/mo sa/ar, but in very different localities and streams. In the tributary of the Wye coming from Talgarth Lake I once took a splendid 3 -lb. trout full of ova, which I carried for two miles expecting to get a male salmon and obtain hybrids, but on trying to obtain the ova, I found it was a male trout marvellously distended with as much salmon ova as would fill two tumblers. These when disgorged were beautifully clear and bright, but next morning they were all opaque and done for. I reared some brown trout one winter, and kept them in a spring for a year, and then took them to some ponds at Elsdon, Lyonshall, now the property of Mr. S. Robinson ; in two years they were taken at 2 lb. weight and over, and in beautiful season ; after that, lacking food and needing a change, they deteriorated in colour and flavour. The recent years of long summer and autumn droughts have been very destructive to trout. The poacher by groping under oris and sally roots and stones, can take them readily ; grayling cannot easily be taken in this way ; they keep in deeper waters. The late Mr. J. H. Arkwright for many years introduced young Loch Leven trout and American brook trout into his fine trout waters of the Lugg at Hampton Court, but was disappointed with his experiments. Few survive the voracity of older trout, pike, and coarse fish in rivers, probably owing to the error of turning small fish into a river or adjacent streams, instead of keeping them for a year in ponds or much smaller streams till they attain larger growth. An ideal trout stream and nursery for trout is the Hindwell, a tributary of the Lugg at Knill Court : the occupier. Colonel Heap, preserves it well, and turns some of its waters into a charming lake for rain- bow trout only. Our Herefordshire rainbow trout are believed to have been first brought from the Western States of America, in the ova state, in 1887, to the Midland Counties Fishery at Malvern, then the property of Mr. Burgess, now of Mr. Walter Bailey. They spawn in March, later by some months than our brown trout, and like Salmo fontinalis, which many of us tried in our rivers, all seem to get away seawards and disappear. Being voracious feeders and not getting sufiicient food in ponds, they deteriorate in those places after three or four years. 18. Grayling. Thymallus vexillifer, lAnn. Some years ago these fish were very abundant at Clifford and Letton streams, but are not so now. Mr. Wyndham Smith says they are increasing at Hoar- withy ; the writer caught one .it Letton of 3 lb. weight. The Lugg and the Teme are their more favourite streams. The Teme grayling are called the finest in England, and are grand autumn and winter fish. Yarrell speaks of one at Shrewsbury of 5 lb. weight, another in the Test 4^ lb. ; but in the Lugg, Teme, and Wye, fish over 3 lb. to 4 lb. are rarely taken. In the Monnow they are increasing, but drop over the weir at Kentchurch, and, not being able to ascend, are more numerous near Skenfrith. Their home is the pool below a rapid stream, and they are not so easily taken in seasons of drought as trout are by the poach- ing groper with his hand under the roots of trees and rocks and stones. Unlike salmon and trout, which spawn at night, grayling may be seen in May busily at work on their redds in the brightest sunshine.^ GANOIDS 19. Sturgeon. J stfenser sturio, lAxm. An occasional visitor to the Wye, but to none of the tributaries. One was caught at Breinton, three miles above Hereford. A man named Posten stripped and attacked a sturgeon with his knife in 1 846. The ^ In the year before Sir William Jardiae died, I was visiting at Jardlne Hall, and was surprised to find he had never seen but much desired to have specimens of grayling sent him, I readily promised to try and bring him some alive, but found it no light task. The late Mr, John Arkwright provided two brace of splendid grayling in two fish cans at Dinmore Station, and with fish, which was brought to Hereford and exhibited at considerable profit, weighed 162 lb. and measured 8 ft. 6 in. It is now in the museum at Hereford. Mr. Wyndham Smith caught one near his place at Aramstone, Hoarwithy, some years ago, and another at Wyastone Leys, Ganarew, weighing 137 lb. the aid of a hothouse syringe for pumping air into the water they got to Lockerbie that night ; the cans were then laid in a little stream, and the next morning Sir William Jardine made his drawing and turned them into his lake. Mr. David Jardine Jardine, the present owner of Jardine Hall, lately told me that the lake was cleaned out some five years ago, and no grayling were found. 125
