294 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



Ellis, who writes in answer to an inquiry on the subject : ' Llanberis 

 Lake is three and a quarter or four miles long ; the width varies, the 

 greatest width being about three-fourths of a mile ; the greatest depth is 

 said to be forty fathoms. The quantity of water coming from copper 

 works is not more than one-tenth part of the whole volume, and this 

 portion flows about five miles before falling into the lake, and, besides? 

 passes through a mountain lake after having left the mine. Below this 

 mountain pool the water is not poisonous to fish. The quantity of water 

 from copper-mines has decreased in this valley owing to the stoppage of 

 works. I cannot think there were ever mines worked to any such extent 

 as to seriously injure fishes. The chief works are slate quarries. 

 J. Petherick, Esq., who has a thorough knowledge of these mines, a part 

 of which are worked by himself, is also of the same opinion.' " 



Pennant has examined the red charr and the gilt charr, but con. 

 siders both as the same species, although the former spawns about 

 Michaelmas, ascending the river Brathay, whilst the spawning season of 

 the latter extends from the month of January to that of March, the fish 

 remaining in the sandy parts of the lake. 



In 1802, the knowledge of these fishes was considerably advanced by 

 Donovan, who well perceived the difference between the torgoch and the 

 charr, but is unable to fix the distinctive characters in specific terms 

 existing for the purpose of diagnosis to the differences in colour, which 

 in his figures are much exaggerated and untrue. In his description he 

 is quite right in directing attention to the slender form of the torgoch, 

 and he might have added another important character which is indicated 

 in the figures, namely, that whilst in the charr the root of the pectoral is 

 quite free and not overlapped by a prolonged sub-operculum (or lesser 

 gill cover) , the latter is produced backwards and inwards in the torgoch. 

 The physiognomy of the fishes has lost much by representing the eye too 

 small, whilst the differences in the structure of the nostrils apparently 

 has been noticed by him. He employs for the charr the Linnean name of 

 8. alpinus, and for the torgoch that of S. salvelinus. 



Luton, in 1807, follows Donovan, and evidently has examined the 

 torgoch, as he gives the correct number of the dorsal rays, viz., thirteen. 

 The statements of the different authors, especially of the earlier, with 

 regard to the fin rays, can only be met with great caution, first, because 

 they had only partly recognised the value of that feature, and secondly, 

 because they counted them in different ways, frequently omitting the 

 small rays in front of the fins. 



In 1813 the first definite notice of the occurrence of a charr-like fish 

 appears to be by Dubourdieu, who, in his history of the county of 

 Antrim, in a list of the fishes of Lough Neagh, enumerates the whiting, 



