242 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



in others white : at the lakes they are in the greatest perfection from July 

 until October : while in Sutherlandshire they are said to be in best condition 

 during June and July (Reports British Association, 1834), and I have found them 

 in that county at this time with a tinge of orange all over the abdomen. In the 

 lake district those from Windermere are most prized, while in Hawes Water and 

 Goats Water they are small, in poor condition, and generally of inferior flavour. 

 Potted char has been held in great esteem from very early times, and a writer in 

 The Field, October 6tli, 1883, remarked upon having come across a reference to 

 it in one of the earliest Gazetteers ever published in England. It is a small 

 duodecimo entitled An Historical Dictio7iary of England and Wales, published 

 anonymously in London A.D. 1G92.* As they soon lose their delicate flavour 

 after removal from the water they are potted and thus considered a great delicacy. 

 They should be simply fried if fresh caught. 



Migrations. — These may be simply from deep to shallow water at different 

 periods of the year, or they may be undertaken at the breeding season to reach 

 suitable spots, or these fish may disappear from one place where they had been 

 planted, apparently owing to the unsuitability of the locality. 



If we investigate the history of the Lochleven char we find materials at hand 

 on this subject respecting these fishes which are interesting. Commencing with 

 Sibbald in his Scotia Illustrata, 1684, he observed among the loch fish " Salme- 

 rinus, An Trutta parenchymate rubro, the Bed Trout I " and in his Kistorij of 

 Kinross-shire, 1710, he referred to " the gelletroch or red-womb trout : it hath 

 a small head ; it is usually eighteen inches long. The speckled trout : red- womb 

 with white fins, taken in October with nets — some are reddish within, some 

 whitish." Pennant, Tour in Scotland, 1775, observing of Lochleven, "the 

 fishermen gave me an account of a species they called the Gaily Trout, which are 

 only caught from October to Jamiary ; are split, salted and dried, for winter 

 provision : by the description, they certainly were our char, only of a larger size 

 than any we have in England or Wales, some being two feet and a half long" 

 (p. 69). In Mr. R. Burns Begg's Lochleven Angler (1874), it was remarked that 

 " char seems to have been by no means uncommon about the commencement of 

 the present century, and several of the witnesses (before Professor Fleming and 

 the sheriff and jury) referred to them as having been regularly taken in 

 considerable numbers with the net. . . . The Rev. Mr. Smith, who towards the 

 close of the last century officiated as minister of the parish of Kinross for upwards 

 of twenty years, thus refeiTcd to it in his History of Kinross-shire, 1793, "The 

 o-ally-trough or char abound in the loch. What is remarkable of them is the size to 

 which they often grow, some of them weighing near 2 lb., and they are never known 

 to rise to a fly or to be caught with a hook baited in any way whatever." The weight 

 here stated by Mr. Smith being the " old pound " is equal to nearly three modern 

 poiands. ..." From some cause, which has never been satisfactorily ascertained, 

 the char has for a considerable number of years entirely disappeared from Loch 

 Leven, not a single specimen having been caught either with rod or net for 

 upwards of thirty years. The very ' last of the race ' is believed to have been 

 caught with the net in the latter part of the season of 1837 at ' the Old House 

 set,' near the present Kini'oss House Pier" (pp. 23, 24). 



I have already referred (p. 218 ante) how in 1830, by a system of drainage, 

 the depth of Loch Leven was reduced four feet and a half, and that the last of the 

 chars was captured in 1837. But even in 1833 an old fisherman, Peter Whyte, 



* The same writer gave the following receipt for potting these fishes: — "Do not wash, but 

 only wipe the fish with a moist cloth. Get a sieve basket, similar to those used to convey fruit 

 to market. Place the fish in it, layer upon layer, sprinkling, as you proceed with the packing, 

 coarse salt between each layer. They must not be packed tight, so as to allow the brine to run 

 off. Leave them so for a couple of days or less, according to taste, some palates preferring 

 pungency, others mildness. Then take the fish out of the basket, wipe them, take off the heads, 

 and extract the entrails. Re-pack them loosely in layers, applying spice and bay leaves to taste, 

 in a iDan or some other baking utensil. Cover the top over with plenty of fresh butter, put the 

 pan in a moderately heated oven, and bake for two hours. Finally, take out the pan, drain off 

 the surplus grease, and, having provided some clarified butter, conclude the process by potting 

 the fish. Thus you have a dish fit to set before a king." 



