THE GWYNIAD. 317 



particularly the case in Wales and Cumberland. He says, " They belong* 

 to the lakes rather than the rivers, and as they are at times found 

 assembled in schools, and thus collected come near the shore in spring and 

 summer, they provide a welcome feast for the people of the neighbour- 

 hood, for although not valued as a delicacy for the epicure, they are 

 relished by those whose sauce is a good appetite." Pennant, who, as I 

 have before remarked somewhere, told some miraculous fish stories, says, 

 on the authority of somebody else, that between seven and eight thousand 

 have been taken with a net at a single draught. They die very quickly 

 out of the water, and are usually salted for preservation. Pennell says 

 the fish amongst the poorer classes where it is taken ia known as the 

 " Freshwater herring." 



This authority also thus refers to its habitat : ' ' UUswater and several 

 others amongst the Cumberland lakes contain great numbers of the 

 gwyniad, which in the vicinity goes by the name of gatelly, on account 

 of its large scales. It occurs also abundantly in the neighbouring lakes 

 of Haweswater, and is in all probability the cregonus, which ia known to 

 inhabit the Bed Tarn, a small sheet of water near the summit of the 

 Halvellyn, elevated more than 2000 feet above the sea level. Llyn Tegid, 

 near Bala, was also at one time plentifully stocked with gwyniad ; but 

 the introduction of pike has, it is supposed, materially reduced their 

 number of late years." It is also said to be taken in Coniston Mere, in 

 Lancashire, and is reported to be found in Ireland. Both Couch, who 

 obtained a specimen at Llyn Tegid, and Pennell opine that the fish 

 referred to is the pollan, which differs from the Welsh gwyniad in the 

 following particulars : In the snout not being produced, in the back fiy 

 being nearer the head, in the less number of rays in the anal fin, in the 

 position of the latter in the back and tail fins being smaller, and in the 

 third ray of the breast fins being longest, the first ray being of the greatest 

 length in the gwyniad. 



Like Mr. Buckland, I must confess to very scant knowledge of this 

 interesting fish, never having seen but one specimen. I cannot therefore 

 detail the method of its angling capture, if indeed there be any available. 

 The following is the description of the specimen figured by Couch, 

 and before adverted to : The example was 12in. in length and 2fin. 

 deep in front of the dorsal fin, from which part it first slopes gradually 

 and then more rapidly to the snout, which overhangs the mouth ; the 

 slope from the snout to the mouth square, gape small ; lower jaw short, 

 slightly turned up at the symphyris as in the mullet, this jaw being 

 received into the upper ; no teeth, except a few fine ones on the tongue. 

 Nostrils in a depression midway between the eyes and the snout ; body 

 compressed, more flattened behind the dorsal than in front of it, narrower 



