Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Iviii. (19 14), No. 8- 13 



wherein aboundeth all kinds of Fresh-Fish ; as Cnrpes, 

 Tenches, Breuies, Roches, Daces, Trouts, and Eeles, in great 

 store." 



The earliest reference of any importance which we 

 have discovered is in an ancient book on fishing by- 

 Richard Brookes, published in 1740®; the extract supply- 

 ing a most useful early account of the Smelt is given in 

 full when referring to that fish. 



Aiken ^" who wrote a few years later than Brookes, 

 either lacked knowledge or took no special interest in 

 fish. He merely states that " Rosthern-meer " is " well 

 furnished with fish." 



Later references to the fauna in periodical or other 

 literature are mentioned under the various species. 



Folk-lore and tradition, as might be expected, have 

 arisen in the neighbourhood of so large and deep a lake, 

 but the various stories have more interest for the anti- 

 quarian than the zoologist. Even now the tale exists 

 that the mere has no bottom, or rather that the actual 

 bottom has never been discovered, but the most ignorant 

 of the natives has probably ^ceased to credit the tradition 

 that an underground passage connects the lake with the 

 sea. Through this passage, so the story goes, a mermaid 

 travelled at certain periods, and some connect her presence 

 with one of the bells from the church. This bell, so we 

 are told, was obstinate and apparently objected to being 

 placed in the church belfry, whereupon one of the annoyed 

 workmen consigned it to the Devil. The Devil accepted 

 it, and the bell at once tore itself loose from its fastenings, 

 bounded down the slope and buried itself in the deeps. 

 The mermaid rings the bell once a year, but the exact 



* "The An of Angling, Rock and Sea-Fishing; with the Natural 

 History of River, Pond, and Sea-Fish." London. 1740. 



^" "A Description of the Country from thirty t(j forty Miles round Man- 

 chester." London. 1795- 



