142 TORGOCH, OR WELSH CHARR. 



it is distinct. According to Donovan, the Torgoch, at one time an inhabitant of Llanberris 

 Lake, had disappeared entirely, on account, it was said, of the noxious waters of a neighbouring 

 copper mine flowing into the lake and destroying the brood ; in his day this Charr was confined 

 to the waters of Llyn Quellyn, on the west side of Snowdon. " Llyn Ouellyn (Cwellyn) is a 

 vast lake of unknown depth, sheltered on one side by an abrupt mountain, which rises 

 immediately out of the water; and in the deep recesses at the base of which the Torgoch is 

 supposed to pass the milder seasons of the year in perfect security." Whatever may have 

 happened about the time of Donovan, the Torgoch is now and has for some time been an 

 inhabitant of the lake of Llanberris. Dr. Giinther originally applied the specific name of cam- 

 bricus to this Charr, but on his discovering that the Sa!mo cambriciis had already been used 

 by Donovan to denote the Sewen, he changed the name to perisii. 



Donovan speaks with enthusiasm of the beauty of the Torgoch. It is "of an elegant and 

 somewhat slender shape, the head long and rather pointed, and its colour splendid beyond all 

 example among the indigenous fishes of this country. Nothing can exceed the fervid aspect 

 of its colours when first taken ; the scarlet of the belly may be truly said to emulate the 

 glowing redness of the fiery element. The upper part of the head and back is of a deep 

 purplish blue, blending into silvery in approaching the lateral line, beneath which the sides 

 are tinged with yellow, passing into orange, and the orange into fine scarlet as it descends 

 towards the belly ; the whole of the back and sides are spotted in a most beautiful manner 

 with fine red ; the lower fins are also red, except the first ray of the ventral and anal which 

 are white." Donovan's description on the whole is good, and much better than the figure 

 he gives of this fish. 



The Torgoch is a smaller species than that found in Windermere and other North of 

 England lakes, seldom exceeding twelve or thirteen inches in length ; though its size may be 

 very probably influenced by food and water, and depends, moreover, on the constitutional 

 vigour of the individual fish. Mr. Mascall, writing in 1835, in The Magazine of Natural History 

 for April, says that the males of the Charr of Ennerdale Lake, in Cumberland, are superior in 

 colour to the females. The fish from Ennerdale which I have seen and handled belong not 

 to the Welsh Charr but to the Windermere species; but these Ennerdale individuals appear 

 to grow to a larger size than is attained by the same species in Windermere. If I have not 

 made a mistake, one of these Ennerdale Charr, which I measured on the 25th. of October, 

 1878, at Troutdale, which had been three years and a half in confinement in a tank, mea- 

 sured as much as twenty-two inches in length. These Charr are said to rise more freely at 

 the fly than the same fish in Windermere. Mr. Parnaby feeds his fish on chopped pieces of 

 horse-flesh, or other procurable food; it is likely that an abundant supply of nutritious food 

 influences their size to a considerable extent. 



The Torgoch is found in Llanberris and some other lakes of North Wales ; it is not 

 known to occur in the North of England, or in Scotland or Ireland. I give Giinther's des- 

 cription, and mark by italics those points in which the Torgoch chiefly differs specifically from 

 its Windermere relative: — "Body slightly compressed and elongate; the length of the head 

 is considerably more than one half of the distance between the snout and the vertical from 

 the origin of the dorsal. Head rather depressed ; interorbital space flat, its width being less 

 than twice the diameter of the eye ; males with the lower jaw longest ; teeth of moderate 

 strength ; gill-cover overlapping the root of the pectoral. Length of the pectoral less than that 

 of the head, much more than one half of the distance between its root and that of the 

 ventral. The nostrils are situated midway between eyeball and end of snout ; the anterior is 

 round, open, surrou7ided by a ntenihi-ane, ivhich posteriorly is developed into a small flap entirely 

 covering the smaller oblong posterior nostril. By this character alone the Torgoch may be dis- 

 tinguished from the Charr (5. williighbii), and the Fresh-water Herring {S. grayi). The back 

 is sea green, which colour becomes lighter on the sides, assuming a yellowish shade, and 



