504 Dr KNOX on the Natural History of 



It may be not unappropriate briefly to state the circum- 

 stances under which the inquiry into the food of the herring 

 and of the vendace was begun. This will divest the observations 

 of an abstract character, which in this advanced stage of the in- 

 quiry they might inadvertently assume, and give to the whole 

 memoir that value which I trust it will be found entitled to, as 

 well from the great extent of the inquiry itself and from its suc- 

 cess, as from the strictly personal nature of all the observations *. 



My attention was first directed to the discovery of the food 

 and habits of the salmon, as described in the first part of this 

 memoir ; and I should gladly have limited the inquiry to that 

 species of fish, in consequence of the time and labour required ; 

 but I found, as all scientific men will readily understand, that 

 the basis of observation was too narrow, and that it imme- 

 diately branched out, so as to include the trout, parr, herling, 

 vendace or corregonus, and herring. The vendace of Lochmaben 

 being closely allied to the salmon and herring, became, therefore, 

 the next object of inquiry, and the following is a brief account 

 of the discovery of its food. 



In certain of the romantic lakes around Lochmaben (a small 

 town in the south of Scotland), is found the elegant and delicate 

 vendace. A precisely similar fish has, as it seems to me, never 

 been found in any other part of Great Britain ; and even the very 

 few persons who state its existence in Wales, and in one or two 

 places in England, admit its extreme rarity. Its presence in the 

 Castle Loch of Lochmaben has been traced to the times of Queen 

 Mary, and even prior to her time. Naturalists, and more parti- 

 cularly Sir W. JARDINE, who has given by far the best account 

 of the Vendace, refer it to the genus Corregonus of systematic 



* The " Journal of Observations" on which this memoir is based, is most ex- 

 tensive, but it has not been thought necessary to trouble the reader with so many 

 details. 



