200 ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FISHERIES 



when trout-fishing, we have frequently noticed it 

 take to the shallow water, where it seems to enjoy 

 swimming about with its back fin protruding. Eels 

 feed much upon loach, as do otters ; hence the 

 three are night feeders. The body is covered 

 with a smooth, slimy secretion, and on this ac- 

 count several of the water-birds reject it. In an 

 extemporised aquarium half-a-dozen loach are 

 swimming before me. With the light full upon 

 them, they seem but little inclined to come from 

 among their gravel, though now and again one of 

 them takes a turn round the little world of waters 

 to see what it can pick up. These little hermits 

 are pugnacious enough, and show desperate fight 

 when one offers to invade the domain of its neigh- 

 bour. The most striking characteristic are six 

 barbules about the mouth, which make the loach 

 resemble a barbel in miniature. These testify to 

 the fact of their living at the bottom of streams 

 and using the mouth as a sucker in search of food. 

 These barbules give the loach its popular name of 

 " beardie ; " it is also known locally as " eelie " and 

 <f eel-roach." Like most fishes, the loach has the 

 power to take on itself the colour of the stream 

 which it haunts, and those before me are greenish 

 brown, spotted and clouded with darker brown ; 

 beneath, pale, yellowish white. The irides are 

 blue ; a medial line runs along the body, and the 

 tail is beautifully barred. 



The loach occurs in most of the rivers and 

 streams of Westmorland and Cumberland. It is 

 common in the Kent, and its tributaries, the Mint 

 and Sprint. It also occurs in the Eden and its 

 tributaries, and in the Eamont. As a rule the 



