CHAR 

 from afar assimilate in appearance and average size to the variety native 

 to the lake in which the strangers have been placed, I cannot but think 

 that char would show similar susceptibility to environment. Nor do I 

 see any reason to reject the conclusion come to by Agassiz when, in 1834, 

 he pronounced all British forms of char to be mere variants of the 

 Ombre chevalier of the Lake of Geneva {Salmo umbla, Linn.). "Naturalists," 

 he said, "have especially attached themselves to the form of the head 

 and the arrangement of the colours; but these two particulars are much 

 too variable to supply precise characters; as to the variations in colour 

 we may say they are infinite."* Yarrell adopted this view in his second 

 and third editions; it has been confirmed by Dr Francis Dayf and, I think, 

 by all subsequent writers who are careful to check museum research by 

 observation of living creatures in their native haunts. Such observation 

 leads to the conclusion that, while British char as a species are as subject 

 to variation as common trout, there is less variation among the char 

 inhabiting any one lake than there is among the trout in the same lake, 

 because char, feeding and living in deep water, come less under the in- 

 fluence of light and variation of temperature than trout, which live and 

 feed chiefly in comparatively shallow water. But between char of different 

 lakes there is generally a well-marked distinction. " The char of Hawes 

 Water, which is known to feed a good deal on insects, is a small and 

 slender fish in comparison with the char of Windermere, which feeds 

 more at the bottom and has a less precarious supply, especially of Sguillce, 

 which abound in that lake. The one takes the artificial fly freely; the other — 

 that of Windermere — ^is rarely so tempted and seldom caught, except 

 by trolling with the minnow. In short, so various are they that in no 

 two lakes do they perfectly agree, either in their average size, form, 

 colouring, or even in their habits. "J 



In general appearance char closely resemble trout; but they are distin- 

 guished by their peculiar autumnal colouration. In some varieties this ap- 

 pears in summer as a rosy flush, deepening on the approach of the spawning 

 season (which corresponds with that of trout) to a vermilion or orange -red 

 hue, differing in depth and brilliancy according to sex and variety. 



The distribution of char has always had a peculiar fascination for me. 

 It takes one back to an era when the surface of our land, deeply ploughed 

 and severely planed by the moving ice-mass, at length lay bare to sun 

 and rain, and was becoming clothed with vegetation. 



"Britith Association Report, 1834, p. 619. ^[British and Irish Salmonida, p. 231. JDr J. Davy, in 1857. 



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