CHAPTER XXXV. 



THE POLLAN. 



ICHTHYOLOGISTS are indebted chiefly to Thompson, the historian of the 

 fishes of Belfast, for the knowledge of the habits and general natural 

 history of the pollan of Ireland (Coregonus pollan), and, as I prefer in 

 this case to have the information first hand instead of a thin dilution by 

 Yarrell, Couch, Pennell, and others, I shall make free use of the paper of 

 that enlightened writer. 



It appears that the earliest notice of the fish is in Harris's " History of 

 the County of Down," published in 1744, where it is referred to as a fish 

 of Lough Neagh, under the present name of Pollan. Nothing further than 

 a brief mention is, however, therein made, nor does more exist in the 

 statistical surveys of the counties of Armagh and Antrim. Its habits do 

 not, with the exception of its having been taken with the artificial fly, 

 differ in any marked respect from either those of the vendace or gwyniad. 

 It approaches the shores during spring and summer, and the following is 

 Thompson's own account of a wonderful catch of the fish in 1834 : " On 

 the days of the 23rd, 24th, and 25th of September, 1834, which I spent 

 in visiting the fishing stations of Lough Neagh, it was along with the 

 common and great lake trouts caught plentifully in sweep nets cast at a 

 small distance from the shore. About a fortnight before this time, and 

 in the first week of September, the greatest take of the pollan ever 

 recollected occurred at the bar-mouth, where the River Sixmile Water 

 enters the lake. At either three or four draughts of the net 140 

 hundreds 123 fish to the hundred or 17,220 fish, were taken. At 

 one draught more were captured than the boat could with safety hold, 

 and they had consequently to be emptied on the neighbouring pier. 

 They altogether filled five one-horse carts, and were sold on the spot at 

 the rate of 3s. 4d. per hundred, producing ,23 6s. 8d." Our author 

 further says : " They are brought in quantities to Belfast, and when the 



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