302 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



months later, when a net of greater compass is employed, the 

 takes of this delicious little fish rarely do more than satisfy the 

 immediate requirements of the Club, in the way of affording 

 each of its members his respective bonne bouche. It has been 

 ascertained that the habits of the vendace confine it, during the 

 greater portion of the year, to the central ranges of the loch, 

 where the depth of water is greatest, and where it is most secure 

 from the attacks of pike. It is only late in summer that it 

 approaches the margins, and can be taken by means of net and 

 coble. Not to have obtained even a solitary specimen of this 

 fish was, I allow, a great disappointment, and quite upset my 

 preconceptions of its comparative abundance. With the grand 

 facility presented by a small-meshed long-net, equal nearly in 

 dimensions to what is used on Tweed in the tideway, I certainly 

 looked forward to more satisfactory results than those actually 

 obtained from our investigation of Lochmaben. I expected a 

 greater variety of fish, and I expected also to come across a magnate 

 or two in the shape of a pike, perch, or trout. The last-mentioned 

 fish are, I am told, scarce. One of four pounds or thereabouts 

 had been taken by Dr. Scott with the spoon-bait during the 

 previous season, but its capture under these circumstances Avas 

 quite an event in the history of the loch, and the experience to 

 boot of its captor. 



Among the fishes enumerated as belonging to the Castle Loch, 

 and peculiar to it, is one termed the greenbone. This designa- 

 tion, however, I have ascertained to be local, applied, in fact, to 

 what is neither less nor more than the roach in its younger stage. 

 It is quite out of place when made use of in order to characterize 

 a species of fish belonging to the same genus (Cyprinidm), of 

 which Lochmaben is the only known habitat. 



The month of May being the spawning season of the bream, 

 I was made alive to this feature in its natural history, by being 

 introduced by Dr. Scott to the exact spot in the lake where the 



