THE GUILT OR GILT CHARll. 77 



and in Wales is accounted the chief dish at the 

 tables of people of fashion. 



The chief place in England where this fish is 

 taken, is Winander-Meer : but in Wales they are 

 to be had in five different places, viz. Llain- 

 berris, Din-Umber, Festiniog, and Beltus, in 

 Caernarvonshire, and near Casageddor, in Me- 

 rionethshire. In this last county they are smaller 

 than in the former, and are taken in October ; 

 but in Caernarvonshire, in one of the lakes, they 

 are caught in November ; in another in Decem- 

 ber, and in the third in January, and when the 

 fishing in one ends, it begins in another. Dr. 

 Leigh says, the charr, in Coningston-Meer, 

 which is not far from Winander-Meer, are much 

 better, but there are reasons to suppose he was 

 prejudiced in this article. According to Cam- 

 den, the latter Meer is the largest stand ing- water 

 in this kingdom, being ten miles in length ; and 

 some say it is as smooth at the bottom, as if it 

 was paved with polished marble. They swim to- 

 gether in shoals, and though they appear on the 

 surface of the water in the summer-time, yet 

 they will not suffer themselves to be taken, either 

 with the angle or with nets ; therefore the only 

 season for fishing, is when they resort to the 

 shallow parts of the lakes to spawn : at these 

 times they set trammel-nets baited, and leave 

 them for whole days and nights, into which the 

 fish enter of their own accord. 



CARP 10 LAC US BENACI THE GUILT OR GILT CllARR* 



The Latin writers called the gilt charr, carpi? 

 lacm Benaci, because they imagined it was only 

 to be met with in that particular lake, where it ii 



H 2 



