GRAINING. 407 



Sankey, which flow into the Mersey below Warrington, and 

 others in or near the township of Knowsley, which also form 

 the Alt, produce the Graining in considerable numbers. In 

 its habits and food it resembles the Trout, frequenting both 

 the rapid and still parts of the rivers, but is not known to 

 exist in ponds. It is fished for with artificial flies, like the 

 Dace or Trout ; and Mr. Bainbridge, an enthusiastic fisher- 

 man, in his excellent Fly-fisher's Guide, published at Liver- 

 pool, says, " that as they rise freely, they afford good sport 

 to the angler ; and when in the humour, it is not difficult to 

 fill a pannier with them. They sometimes, though not corn- 

 monly, exceed half a pound in weight, and are much better 

 eating than the Dace." 



Mr. Thompson of Belfast, says, several small individuals 

 of this species occurred to him in the river Learn, near Leam- 

 ington, in July 1836 ; and on showing specimens of this fish 

 to M. Agassiz, the Ichthyologist, of Neufchatel, he recog- 

 nized it immediately as a species inhabiting some of the lakes 

 of Switzerland, a detailed account of which will appear in his 

 promised work on the Fishes of Central Europe. 



The length of the head compared to the whole length of 

 head, body, and tail, is as one to six ; the depth of the body 

 compared to the whole length, as one to five ; the nose is 

 more rounded than in the Dace, the upper line of the head 

 being straighter ; the eye rather larger ; the inferior edge of 

 the preoperculum less angular ; the dorsal line less convex : the 

 dorsal fin commencing exactly half-way between the point of 

 the nose and the end of the fleshy portion of the tail ; the 

 dorsal fin in the Dace arises behind the middle. The first 

 dorsal fin-ray in the Graining is short, the second ray the 

 longest ; the pectoral fins longer in proportion than in the 

 Dace ; the ventral fins placed, on a vertical line, but little in 

 advance of the first ray of the dorsal fin; the anal commences, 

 on a vertical line, under the termination of the dorsal fin-rays 



