THE CHARS. 259 



roe have been known to pass through a rough current, but 

 still without remaining in it. Their habitual residence, however, 

 is in the deeper lakes, and usually near the bottom; for it is 

 only when the sexual impulse prevails, the season of which is 

 not the same in each kind, that they come near the borders 

 or into shallow water, so as to be within reach of the net. It 

 is then, in the colder months of the year, that they sport near 

 the margin, and proceed in numerous assemblages to a not very 

 considerable distance up a favoured river to shed their spawn; 

 or perhaps some well-known shallower part of the lake itself is 

 chosen for the purpose; but in any case the situation must 

 have a hard or stony bottom, not unlike that of the lower 

 depth of the lake in which they live at other seasons. It has 

 even been noticed that when some Chars have passed into 

 rivers which flow into their lake, but which have a sandy 

 bottom, they have retraced their course without having performed 

 this duty of nature. 



From the fact already noticed, that all which have been 

 enclosed in a net at one time have been males, and afterwards 

 the assemblage has consisted of none but females, it seems 

 probable that at an early stage of the development of the milt 

 and roe they keep apart from each other. Yet afterwards they 

 mingle together in an apparently indiscriminate multitude, 

 although the season is not the same in the different species; 

 for while some are known to shed the roe as early as October 

 and through November, other species perform this function 

 from December to the end of January. But whenever performed 

 it is the time when the fishery is carried on, for the most part 

 with nets; with which from twenty to thirty dozen have been 

 caught at a single haul, although more commonly the quantity 

 taken is much less than this. All the kinds of Chars are held 

 in esteem for the table; but as they soon lose their delicate 

 flavour, a principal use of them is by preserving them in pots; 

 in which condition they form a fashionable dish. But to what 

 extent the method of preparation can deceive the palate appears 

 from the fact, that when the supply of the favourite article 

 fails, little scruple is said to be felt in substituting the Trout 

 in its place without fear of detection. 



It is affirmed by the fishermen that Chars cannot be caught 

 in any quantity except in the cold season of the year; and 



