s perhaps the most
delicately flavoured fish that exists in this country, although it
lives and thrives in fresh water for two or three years, if kept
in a locality where it cannot escape to the sea, yet, if kept
longer than that time, pines away and dies. If, therefore, we
could obtain a hybrid fish, bred between the river Trout and the
Salmon, we should probably produce a fish which, being a mule,
would be always in good condition; being crossed with a river
fish, it would probably never require a visit to salt water to
keep it in good health. Being crossed with a Salmon, it ought to
get to a good size in a comparatively short period; and, if it
would rise at the artificial fly, or the minnow, ought to afford
first-rate sport to the angler.

There does not appear to be a greater specific difference between
the Trout and the Salmon than there is between the horse and the
ass, between the mallard and the musk duck, or between a cabbage
and a turnip. But hitherto, in all my experiments, I have never
succeeded in producing a hybrid between the Trout and the
Salmon. [9] Yet I do not despair of doing so, for there was always
a something to complain of, and to doubt about, in every one I
tried, and I still think I shall succeed by perseverance. Even if
I shall succeed, the result may not prove quite so favourable as I
anticipate, but may turn out as unfortunately as the marriage of
the gentleman in the story, which relates that, being good-
tempered but ugly himself, he married a handsome ill-tempered
wife, hoping that his children would have his good-temper and
their mother's good looks; but when they came, they were as ugly
as the father and as ill-tempered as the mother. So it may prove
with these hybrids--they may not always thrive in fresh water;
they may not grow to a good size; they may not rise at the
artificial fly; they may be worthless for the table. Nevertheless,
it is desirable if possible that this should be ascertained. The
progeny of a male Salmon and a female Trout may be much better or
much worse fitted for a continual residence in fresh water than
the descendants of a male Trout and a female Salmon; but this can
only be determined by experiment. Dr. Lindley says, in his
introduction to the "Guide to the Orchard," that in the cross
fertilization of fruits, the seedlings always partake more of the
character of the male than of the female parent. But I believe
that in breeding mules it is found more desira