CHAR 75 



the Lake District, North Wales, and Ireland, and on 

 the continent of Europe in Scandinavia and the 

 Alps. 



As has been said, Char are chiefly found in deep 

 cold lal^es, but there are exceptions to this, and, 

 indeed, the Char lakes of our islands show great 

 variety. Char became extinct about one hundred 

 years ago in Lough Neagh, which is the largest lake 

 in the British Isles, but they still flourish in such 

 large pieces of water as Loughs Corrib and Mask, 

 Lochs Ericht and Rannoch, and Windermere ; on 

 the other hand, they may inhabit quite small lakes, 

 such as one on the shoulder of Ben Hope, or the 

 tarn at the head of Glen Roy. It often happens 

 that they are found only in the deepest of several 

 neighbouring lochs ; for example, in Caithness they 

 occur only in Loch Calder, which is distinguished 

 from other lochs of that county by its depth ; 

 Loch Morar, with a maximum depth of more than 

 looo feet, is said to hold Char, and Lochs Ericht 

 and Rannoch are very deep, with greatest depths 

 of 5 I 2 and 440 feet respectively ; but depth is not 

 essential, for in a few cases they abound in shallow 

 lakes ; a notable example is Loch Borallan, which 

 has a maximum depth of only 2 1 feet. 



Of Char lakes situated at an altitude of more 

 than 1000 feet we may mention Loch Builg(i5 8 5), 

 Loch Ericht (1153), and Loch Dungeon (1002); 

 these may be contrasted with Lough Corrib in 

 Ireland, Loch Fada in North Uist, or Loch Scourie 

 in Sutherland, all of which are placed at less than 

 5 o feet above the level of the sea. 



There can be little doubt that when the tempera- 

 ture of Europe was lower, as during the glacial 



