AND ANGLING SONGS. 345 



A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARR OF OUR 

 SCOTCH LAKES. 



WITH the celebrated charr of Windermere, I never had an 

 opportunity, except in the potted state, of becoming acquainted. 

 Its reputed spawning-ground, however, at the mouth of the Bra- 

 thay. has been visited by me, and the general habits of this fish 

 inquired into. As I am conversant, to some extent, with the 

 charr found in several of our Scottish lakes, Loch Achilty in par- 

 ticular, I feel at liberty to remark on a feature which has not 

 hitherto received attention, namely, the difference occurring in 

 the conditions of the breeding- grounds of the Westmoreland and 

 Highland charr. In Windermere these fish crowd up from the 

 lake into the stream at its head, which is formed by the union, a 

 short way up, of the Rothay and Brathay. The former, and 

 more direct feeder, has a sandy bottom ; that of the other, which 

 traverses Langdale, is rocky, and covered, above the point of 

 confluence, with weeds. Although the charr has been observed 

 to enter the Rothay, they have never been known to conduct 

 their spawning operations over its bed ; but invariably, on dis- 

 covering their mistake, they retrace their way back to the 

 junction, and ascend the lateral water a still portion of 

 which, expanding into a small lake, forms their usual halting- 

 place. 



In the case of Loch Achilty, which lies about ten miles west 

 of Dingwall, the spawning accommodation resorted to by the 

 charr is exactly, in one respect at least, of an opposite character. 

 This sheet of water, which is not more than three miles in cir- 

 cumference, occupies a romantic hollow in the ridge of high 

 ground lying betwixt the Conon and the Rasay or Blackwater. 

 On many accounts it is a remarkable and highly interesting lake ; 

 but chiefly from the circumstance of there being no visible outlet 



