SMALLER LAKES 119 



from its lower extremity two promontories appear 

 to divide it into separate reaches. A point a little 

 above Mellbreak commands the whole of Butter- 

 mere and Crummock, and the mountains which 

 more immediately shut in the latter are Grass- 

 moor on the east and Mellbreak on the west. 

 These, with the neighbouring mountains, con- 

 tribute much to the bold and naked grandeur of 

 the whole. About a mile from the lake on the 

 Scale Hill side is Scale Force, the loftiest waterfall 

 in the Lake District. The water takes a single 

 leap of 1 20 feet, and lies in a hollow on the side of 

 Red Pike. 



Crummock is about 3 miles long by f of a mile 

 in breadth, and is the most important of the 

 present series of lakes. 



As in the case of Buttermere it contains trout, 

 char, pike and perch ; and, as salmon run through 

 Crummock into Buttermere, they are occasionally 

 taken. The quality of the trout in the former is 

 probably superior (they are certainly larger, aver- 

 aging half-a-pound) to those in the latter, but 

 among anglers who have had experience of both 

 lakes opinion is divided upon this point. Both, 

 however, are pink fleshed, and game, fighting fish. 

 Crummock is netted by the lord of the manor 

 (there are, however, certain rocky portions which 

 cannot be netted) ; Buttermere escapes. This is 

 probably why the Crummock trout are the 

 larger. 



This is comparatively an early lake the earliest 

 of the series. 



The flies are the same as for Buttermere. A 

 gentleman who has fished the lake for fifty years 

 upon one occasion handed me a cast of flies, and 



