THE CHUB 135 
Cholmondeley-Pennell has put the following measurements 
on record : 
Weight, 5 lb. 54 oz.; length, 21 in. 
ee Gulor 2507.50 5, 22 in. 
5 wee OS O25 55 23 in. 
In the autumn of 1902 a fine chub was killed in the Eden, 
Cumberland, by Mr. W. Corless, of Wigan. The dimensions 
of this fish were as follows: Length, 24 in.; girth, 15 in. ; 
weight, 6 lb. 3 oz. From Austrian waters chub of heavier 
weights than these are reported. 
The chub is widely distributed over the temperate zone in 
Europe and Asia Minor, but does not extend far into Scotland. 
Distribution Ln some tracts, notably the Spanish peninsula and 
and habits. T)almatia, it has assumed varietal forms so constant 
as, in the opinion of some naturalists, to constitute separate 
species. Unlike many cyprinoid fish, it is impatient of pollu- 
tion, and loves clear running water and a gravelly or sandy 
bottom. In no British river is it more abundant than in the 
Eden of Cumberland, where it is known as the skelly,* and 
regarded as a mischievous kind of vermin because of the 
destruction it executes upon the ova and young of salmon and 
trout. It is of a more actively predaceous habit than any other 
British cyprinoid fish, for although it consumes large quanti- 
ties of vegetable food in summer, it is practically omnivorous. 
Worms, flies, trout and salmon spawn, small fish, frogs, and 
even mice come not amiss to the chub’s capacious maw. There 
is, therefore, more than one reason for the owners of waters 
containing trout to detest the worthless chub, which not only 
destroys great quantities of spawn and fry, but appropriates a 
vast deal of the provender which would otherwise go to sup- 
port better fish. In the Cumberland Eden is practised a device 
for getting rid of chub, which is known as “fuddling skellies.”’ 
* This term is also applied in the English Lake District to a very 
different fish, Coregonus clupeoides, one of the lacustrine Sa/monide. 
