THE CHAR CHAR FISHING 209 



that the movements of the char are extremely 

 local. 



The mystery which surrounds this fish is 

 perhaps most pronounced in relation to its 

 spawning. In Crummock, Buttermere, Coniston, 

 Ennerdale, Wastwater, and Gaits Water, the char 

 spawn on the sides of the lake ; in Ullswater they 

 used to spawn in the lake itself, and in Glenridd- 

 ing beck ; in Windermere they spawn mainly in 

 the lake, and, to a smaller extent, in the river 

 Brathay. 



It has been stated almost times without number 

 that of the streams at the head of Windermere the 

 trout go up the Rothay to spawn, the char up the 

 Brathay. This is too general a statement, and is 

 far from accurate. Trout spawn indiscriminately in 

 both the Rothay and Brathay. For trout, however, 

 the bed of the former is superior to that of the latter. 



As the spawning season advances, the char, like 

 the trout, run up both streams ; l but, without re- 

 maining, the char that make up the Rothay at once 



1 This fact was known to Sir Daniel Fleming upwards of 

 two centuries ago, as witness the following : " Up the river 

 Routha go yearly plenty of large trouts, and up Brathy many 

 case (a fish very like a charr, but of a different species, it 

 spawning at another time of the year), and though these 

 waters run a good way in one channel before they fall into 

 Winander-meer- water, and are both very clear and bottomed 

 alike, yet the owners of Rydal-hall (to whom the fishing of 

 both these rivers doth belong, and have a fish-ark or coop in 

 either river), scarce ever got any trouts in Brathy, or case 

 in Routha-meer, in which are several islands and store of 

 fish as pikes, perch, trouts, and eeles, the fishing whereof, as 

 also Elterwater, Longbrigge Tarn, and other waters in the 

 parish of Grasmere, have time out of mind belonged to the 

 lords of the said manor." 



