Ii8 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



angler and naturalist, told mc recently that he had 

 seen shoals of fish swimming near the surface in 

 Uerwentwater, which he believed to be Vendace. 

 Certainly they are never caught by anglers, but the 

 net fishermen do not try for them, and so far as I 

 could gather from conversation with them they 

 thought that to catch Vendace they would have to 

 use a net of smaller mesh and fish farther from the 

 shore than they are allowed to do at present. It was 

 curious to come from Lochmaben, where the Cum- 

 berland Vendace had never been heard of, and to talk 

 with the Derwentwater boatmen, who knew not of the 

 Lochmaben Vendace, but were well acquainted with 

 their own species, although they never see it except 

 on the rare occasions when one is found, dead or 

 dying, either floating on the water or washed ashore. 



The Pollan {Coregonus poUan) of Lough Neagh 

 probably gets its name from the same source as the 

 Pollack, i.e. the Celtic word Pollag, Whiting. It 

 differs from the Vendaces in several respects ; the 

 mouth is less oblique and the lower jaw does not 

 project beyond the upper ; the scales are smaller, 

 numbering seventy-four to eighty-six in a longi- 

 tudinal series, and seven and a half to nine between 

 the lateral line and the base of the pelvic fins ; the 

 dorsal fin is placed a little farther forward, and the 

 pelvic fins are inserted in or a little in advance of 

 the vertical from the middle of its base. There are 

 nine to eleven branched rays in the dorsal fin and 

 eight to eleven in the anal ; the fins are com- 

 paratively small, the longest dorsal ray measuring 

 about two-thirds the length of the head, the pectoral 

 extendinc: about one-half of the distance from its 



