c 



256 "CHE CHARS. 



these fishes as are met with in his own country; but the commo 

 character he has assigned to them is, that the head is longe 

 than the height of the body; and especially that the colour c 

 the back is inclined to a dark green, tinged with blue, ofte. 

 strewed over with pale red spots; low on the sides, and th< 

 under portion of the body white or yellowish red; the fin 

 below yellowish red, with a white edge in front; the anal fii 

 and tail, the latter especially, lunated. Intensity of colour i 

 indeed a particular characteristic of the Chars; but it is to b 

 remarked that this applies in part only to the British species 

 and in reference to the character which is made prominent b; 

 Nilsson, and is represented in the plates of Donovan and Mi 

 Yarrell, of a scattering of pale red or white spots over th 

 back and sides, it is remarked by Dr. Gunther, and in par 

 agrees with our own observation, that however commonly thes. 

 may be seen, they are not constant; and they are also liabl 

 to disappear in examples on which they have been before 

 conspicuous. I have seen them, however, after long immersioi 

 in spirit, in examples of the Torgoch from Llanberis, when thi 

 red colour of the under parts had vanished. 



In proceeding with this portion of our subject, we dee™ i 



proper to specify the materials from an examination of whicl 



the conclusions have been drawn at which we have arrived 



and these are in the first place two specimens of the so-callec 



Fresh-water Herring of Lough Melvin, in Ireland; which 



however, are not to be confounded with the Pollan or th< 



Powan, which we shall describe, and the former of which 



with somewhat more propriety, bears the same name. Thi 



Char is the Salmo or Salvclinus Grayi of our History; and ; 



comparison of examples obtained from the same lake ha 



persuaded Dr. Gunther that they are distinct from all the C u ^ 



which he has a knowledge of on the continent of Europe; a 



also, so far as he is able to discern, from all those which an 



described by the continental writers Heckel, Nilsson, and Eapp 



And this judgment is further confirmed by about twenty othe: 



examples sent by the noble Earl already mentioned to myself 



and the same number to Dr. Gunther at the British Museun* 



all of them males, and caught together; and it is worthy 



notice that afterwards a considerable number taken at the same 



place were all females. Again, and in contrast to these, there 



