2 74 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



Wastwater, UUswater, Gaitswater, and Seathwaite Tarn. 

 Attempts to establish them in other lakes have failed. For 

 instance, a number of years ago char were turned into Potter 

 Fell Tarn, about four miles from Kendal, an excellent trout 

 lake, apparently very suitable for this mountain- loving fish. 

 They seem to have migrated in search of more suitable 

 quarters, for, twelve months after the experiment, one was 

 caught with the fly weighing half a pound in the river Kent. 

 All these English char are of the variety known as Willughby's 

 char (Dr. Gunther's Salvelinus Willughbii). The back is very 

 dark green, almost black, passing into sea-green on the sides, . 

 with silvery reflections, and spotted with red ; the belly is 

 deeply stained with carmine and orange. The ventral fins 

 are red, with a white anterior margin ; the anal fin is reddish 

 also, with a similar white margin ; the pectoral fins are 

 greenish, v/ith a white anterior margin, and stained with red 

 on the posterior margin. The first dorsal and caudal fins 

 are blackish. 



In Scotland char have been reported from Loch Leven, 

 where they are now extinct ; Loch Insch, in Strathspey ; in 

 the Lochs Rannoch, Assyut, Altnacalgach, Tay, Dochart, and 

 many others, especially in Sutherlandshire, also from the 

 Hebrides and Orkney Islands. In the southern uplands of 

 Scotland, where there are an immense number of deep lochs, 

 they are only found in Loch Grannoch and Loch Dungeon, 

 in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and in Loch Doon, in 

 Ayrshire. 



The distribution of char in this district, one with which I 

 am very familiar, ofi^ers a most perplexing problem. I can 

 suggest no cause for their presence in these three sheets of 

 water only, and their absence from many other lakes in the 

 neighbourhood, to all appearance equally suitable to their 

 requirements. The char of Loch Grannoch and Loch Dun- 

 geon resemble the Windermere fish in appearance, and rarely 

 take the fly ; those of Loch Doon are of a different type, and 



