66 ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FISHERIES 



large, with not so red a belly, but the fish thereof very red 

 within, having its belly full of hard roes or spawn, called 

 roneing chars ; thirdly, the female being not so large, nor so 

 red on the outside, but the reddest within, having no roes in 

 its belly, and these are called gelt chars. 



" Sir Daniel Fleming says, there are no chars to be found 

 save only in this lake and Coningston Water. Some other 

 waters (he says) pretend to have chars in them, as Butter- 

 mere in Cumberland, and Ulleswater (which is between 

 Westmorland and Cumberland), but these are generally 

 esteemed by knowing persons to be only case, a kind of 

 fish somewhat like unto a char, but not near so valuable, but 

 the owners of the fishery in Ulleswater do not assent to this 

 position. 



" The fishery in the lake is farmed by several 'persons who 

 all together pay to the king's receiver for fishing 6 a year, 

 or for the fishing and ferry together 6 13^. %d. And so it 

 descends to their executors and administrators. 



" The fishing is divided into three cables as they call them : 

 i. The high cable, from the water head to the char bed, half 

 a mile above Calgarth. 2. The middle cable, from thence 

 to below the ferry. 3. The lower cable, from thence to 

 Newby. And in each cable there are four fisheries. 



" Out of this lake there yearly pass up the river Rowthey 

 many very large trouts, and up the river Brathey great store 

 of case (which are like the char, but spawn at another season 

 of the year). And although these two rivers do run a good 

 way together in one channel before they disembogue into 

 Windermere Water, and are both very clear and bottomed 

 alike, yet scarce ever any trouts are found in Brathey, or 

 case in Rowthey. Some few salmon also, at the spawning 

 season, come from the sea through the lake and up the river 

 Rowthey, but none ever up Brathey." 



Windermere is so well known as the largest and 

 most visited of the lakes, that it is almost super- 

 fluous to go over its dimensions. It is loj miles in 

 length, its greatest breadth being 1610 yards, its 

 mean breadth 950 yards. These dimensions give an 

 area of 5*69 square miles, and the circumference of 

 the lake is about 23 miles. Its height above sea- 



