138 COLE'S CHARR. 



Order IV. Family 



PHY80ST0MI. SALMONIDM. 



Sub-generic Group — SalveLINI. 



■^OLE'S "fiHARR. 



(Sahiio coin.) 



Salmo coin, Charr of Lough Eskc, GiJNTHER, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 12, pi. 11; Cat. p. 138. 



Cole's Charr, Eniiiskillin Charr, CouCH, Fish. Brit. Isl. iv. p. 269, pi. 225. 



THIS is one of the smallest, if not the smallest of the British Charrs. I am indebted to 

 Mr. Thomas Brooke, of the Castle, Lough Eske, as well as to Mr. Arthur R. Wallace, 

 of Dublin, for several specimens of this fish, received in November, 1878. Mr. Wallace tells 

 me that he has occasionally taken this Charr with the artificial fly, as when they come from 

 the deep water towards the shore as the spawning- season approaches they show in small 

 shoals on the top of the water, somewhat like Mackerel. This species is mature when about 

 five or six inches In length ; none of the specimens so obligingly sent to me from Lough 

 Eske exceeded eight inches, and according to inquiries made by the Earl of Enniskillin it 

 never attains to a greater size. 



The only known localities for this Charr are the lakes of Eske and Dan. " Lough Eske 

 (Eske or Yesk meaning Fish)," writes Mr. Brooke, whose family have resided near the lake 

 for more than two centuries, "was the crater of an extinct volcano, as suggested by Dr. 

 Wilde, of Dublin ; a high mountain range runs close to the north-east shores. In the 

 season Salmon, White Trout {S. truttd), and the Common Lake Trout are in abundance. The 

 Commissioners of Fisheries have decided that the Charr of Lough Eske are the Salmo alpinus, 

 thus placing them in the same Act as Salmon ; so that, except for scientific purposes, we 

 are not permitted to take them after August. Formerly, in the months of October and 

 November, the fish were taken in large quantities by the country people, without any apparent 

 diminution of their number. Now, at the permitted season of fishing, they remain in such 

 deep waters that the people have not nets sufficiently large to take them." — {Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1865, p. 14.) The Salmon Acts are now applicable to all the species of Charr, which, 

 so long as they continue in force as at present, can never furnish food supply to the 

 people. The extension of the Salmon Acts to Charr is, I think, a great mistake. The only 

 time — and that time is of short duration — when Charr can be taken in any numbers, is in 

 October and November, when they leave their deep-water haunts for the shallower parts of 

 the lakes. The destructive agency of man, limited as it was to one or two month's duration, 

 could have but little effect in causing a diminution of the species, in the extensive depths of 

 our great lakes, which for five sixths of the year provide safe and unassailable harbour. 



The trivial name assigned to this species is intended as a mark of respect to the Earl 

 of Enniskillin, whose family name Is Cole, to whom zoological science is considerably indebted 

 for many interesting specimens of natural history which may now be seen In the British 

 Museum. I have to thank the same nobleman for writing me a letter containing Information 

 which proved of value to me on my visit to Ireland in July, 1878. It is much to be 

 regretted that the Earl has now become so blind that he is quite unable to procure sped- 



