2O Wild Life in Wales 



inhabitants, which he was ever destined to see again. The 

 spirit of desolation appeared to him as " a great fish, white 

 as the morning cloud," which carried the harp to his feet 

 and then vanished beneath the waters, and that, it is 

 believed, was the first of the Gwyniads which now inhabit 

 the lake : the little bird hovering in the air, crying out 

 " Come, come, come," is still personified by the Moor-Pipit. 

 The Dee is a noble river as it leaves the lake, and affords 

 good trout and salmon fishing ; it contains also plenty of 

 grayling, but though the latter are caught in numbers just 

 below the mouth of the Tryweryn, they do not appear to 

 enter the lake, or at least I did not hear of any taken there, 

 or in any part of its feeders. About Corwen, where they 

 are a good deal fished for, I heard one person apply the 

 name of Glasgangen to these fish, but otherwise they are 

 always spoken of simply as Grayling. Most of the Salmon 

 and Sea Trout, which come up the Dee, seem to take the 

 Tryweryn in preference to keeping to the main stream and 

 so entering the lake. This, it is said by some of the 

 residents, was not always so ; and it is thought that a slight 

 obstruction across the Dee, just below the lake, may have 

 turned the fish from what would seem to be their more 

 natural course. On the other hand, they may .find the 

 spawning beds on the Tryweryn more to their liking. 

 Another reason that I heard discussed was that the 

 Tryweryn was the head of the original river, when the 

 lake had a westerly outlet, and that " the fish really 

 belonged to that stream " ; but such a theory would 

 take us back to times as mythical as the submergence 

 of the " Fair Vale of Edeirnion," and may be regarded as 

 being as authentic as that tale. There is, besides, the direct 

 evidence of residents that at no distant date salmon were 

 much more abundant in the lake and its tributaries than is 

 the case now. Be the cause what it may, however, the fact 

 remains ; and if it be not presumption for a mere casual 

 visitor to express an opinion on such a matter, it would 

 seem to be one that is to be regretted. A few migratory 

 Salmonid<e do find their way through the lake every year, and 

 there is admirable spawning ground for them in most of 



