FISHES OF THE DISTRICT 185 



often retire to deep water. Feeding principally on 

 minute entomostracous animals, they rarely take the 

 angler's bait, and when wanted for the table a net 

 is employed for their capture. They spawn in 

 November, congregating in large shoals, frequently 

 rising to the surface like the common herring and 

 making a similar noise by their rise and fall to and 

 from the surface ; they have a few very minute 

 teeth on the tongue only, but the mouth is well 

 adapted to the food on which they live. The upper 

 parts of the body are of a delicate greenish-brown 

 or olive colour, shading gradually towards the 

 belly into a clear silver. The dorsal fin is dark 

 olive and the lower fins are all bluish-white. The 

 flesh is exceedingly delicate and fully justifies the 

 estimation in which it is held." 



THE GWYNIAD (Coregonus clupeoides)^ 



The gwyniad or fresh-water herring is found in 

 both Ullswater and Haweswater, and is always 

 referred to by the natives as the skelly. In 

 Ullswater thirty years ago, the gwyniad was 

 common, whilst now it is comparatively rare. Its 

 occurrence here was mentioned as long ago as 1686 

 (Willughby). In Haweswater it is as abundant as 

 it has ever been. Dr. Davy states that the gwyniad 

 also occurs in Red Tarn, at the foot of Helvellyn, 



1 Gwyniad or schelly. The scheely, as it is called in 

 Cumberland, is an inhabitant of almost all our large lakes, 

 and is so numerous in Ullswater that thousands of them are 

 sometimes taken at one draught. A few of them sometimes 

 leave Ullswater, go down the river Eamont into the Eden, 

 and now and then a solitary one is taken below the bay 

 of Armathwaite. Dr. Heysham in Hutchinsorfs History of 

 Cumberland. 



