GWYNIAD. I \-'> 



case ; and, from recent observation, there is now reason to 

 believe that the Pollan of Ireland is distinct from the two 

 species of Coregonus found in Great Britain. 



The Gwyniad of Wales was formerly very numerous in 

 Llyn Tegid (Fair Lake), at Bala, until the year 1803, when 

 Pike were put into the lake, which have very much reduced 

 their numbers. Pennant considered the Gwyniad as the 

 same with the C.fera of the Lake of Geneva, following in 

 this the opinion of Willughby ; and in the manuscript notes 

 of a fishing tour in Wales, by two excellent fishermen, who 

 had also pursued their amusement abroad, an opinion is given 

 to the same effect. Our Gwyniad bears a close resemblance 

 to the figure of C. fera in the illustrations to M. Jurine's 

 Memoir on the Fishes of Lake Leman : his description I 

 have not seen. The British fish accords also with the short 

 description of the C. fera in Professor Nilsson's Prodromus 

 of the Fishes of Scandinavia. 



The Gwyniad is very numerous in Ulswater and other 

 large lakes of Cumberland, where, on account of its large 

 scales, it is called the Schelly. Dr. Heysham, the natural 

 historian of Cumberland, and Pennant also, in his British 

 Zoology, have recorded that many hundreds are sometimes 

 taken at a single draught of the net. They are gregarious, 

 and approach the shore in vast shoals in spring and summer. 

 Pennant says, they die very soon after they are taken out of 

 the water, are insipid in taste, and must be eaten soon, for 

 they will not keep long. The poorer classes, who consider, 

 and even call them the Fresh-water Herring, preserve them 

 with salt. The fish is not unlike a Herring in appearance, 

 and the Welsh term Gwyniad has reference to their silvery 

 white colour. They spawn towards the end of the year, and 

 the most usual length of the adult fish is from ten to twelve 

 inches. 



The length of the head is about one-fifth of the whole 



