1 84 ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FISHERIES 



Bassenthwaite ; and Thomas Bell, giving evidence 

 before the late Frank Buckland and Mr. Spencer 

 Walpole, at Keswick (1878), testifies as follows: 

 " There are vendace in Bassenthwaite. Has seen 

 them taken out of Bassenthwaite. Does not 

 think there are many vendace now. The pike 

 eat them. Cannot tell when they spawn." And 

 upon the same occasion John Alcock states : 

 " There are vendace in the lake, but they are very 

 rare." Individual specimens are preserved at the 

 Keswick Museum and by private individuals in the 

 same district a fact showing how extremely rare 

 the species has become. It is rather curious that 

 from time to time individual specimens are washed 

 up, either dead or in a dying condition, on the 

 shores of Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite. Dr. 

 Davy states that " within the past eight years [i.e. 

 prior to 1857] a good many have been taken with 

 the net, and many also in the same way in 

 Bassenthwaite Lake, that which receives the Der- 

 went, and is distant from this only three or four 

 miles. That it is not a scarce fish here, may, 

 I think, be inferred from the circumstances of two 

 lately having been killed by a stroke of the oar." 

 That the fish of Derwentwater, Bassenthwaite, and 

 Lochmaben are identical, Davy proved by a close 

 comparison of fish from the three lakes. 



My friend, the late G. F. Braithwaite, knew the 

 vendace of Lochmaben, where he often went to fish. 

 Here it is comparatively common, and as his know- 

 ledge of the species is at first hand I take the liberty 

 of quoting the following facts concerning it : " In 

 its general habits the vendace nearly resembles 

 the gwyniad or fresh-water herring of Ullswater. 

 They swim in large shoals, and in warm weather 



