THE CHAR AND THE SMELT 273 



The char differs in habit from the brown trout [Salmo fano\ 

 with which it has such close affinity, in being intensely 

 gregarious, in haunting and feeding in very deep water, and 

 in spawning in large shoals without any necessity for running 

 water. Deep water is more than a matter of preference with 

 char — it seems to be a necessity of their existence. Formerly 

 they were abundant in Loch Leven, but that fine sheet of 

 water was reduced by drainage in 1830 to the extent of four 

 feet and a half in depth, and forthwith the char disappeared, 

 the last recorded capture being in 1837. Char only resort 

 to the shallow parts of lakes in the breeding season, which 

 is the same as that of trout — namely, in late autumn and 

 early winter. At such times it is the practice to net them in 

 Scotland, where they are seldom taken at other seasons, owing 

 to the depth at which they lie. This used to be the case in 

 the English lakes also, but in 1878 a legislative close-time 

 was enacted for char in England, extending from October 2nd 

 to March 31st, both days inclusive. The char of Windermere 

 manifest a singular diversity from the usual spawning habits 

 of their kind. Most of them spawn like the char in Butter- 

 mere, Coniston, and the other lakes of the Cumberland district, 

 namely, in the shallow water of the lake itself, but others 

 affect running water. In autumn they enter two rivers, the 

 Rothay and the Brathay, flowing into Windermere in the 

 same channel ; but they will not tarry in the Rothay. They 

 leave it almost at once and run up the Brathay, which is fed 

 from Grasmere and Rydal Water, and has a temperature 

 several degrees lower than the Rothay. Trout, on the other 

 hand, spawn in both rivers. This preference shown by char 

 for the Brathay-Was noted two hundred years ago by Sir Daniel 

 Fleming, and has been fully confirmed of late by Mr. John 

 Watson, the leading authority on the fish of the English lakes.* 

 In England char are found only in Windermere, the lakes 

 of Coniston, Crummock, Ennerdale, Haweswater, Buttermere, 

 * The English Lake District Fisheries, by John Watson, 1899. 



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