104 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



common varieties of that little fish. It is thick and 

 girthy, prefers swimming in places of considerable 

 depth, although close to the margin, and moves 

 at a sort of jerking but by no means rapid pace. 

 It loves also to congregate in an unsuspicious and 

 familiar manner round the legs of the wader, ex- 

 hibiting a sort of stupid tameness that not a little 

 surprised me. There seems to be no regular season 

 for the spawn of this diminutive animal. I observed 

 it paired off both during summer and winter along 

 the shallows, in order to deposit its ova. When in 

 this ripe state, it presented a dull and unhealthy 

 appearance, and its movements were evidently 

 painful and constrained. 



The spawning of the Loch Aehilty char seemed 

 to me, in several instances, if not in ail, a subter- 

 raneous operation, carried on among the roots of 

 springs, and in the oozy and caverned outlet of its 

 waters. The fish, I am credibly informed, have been 

 caught repeatedly by means of a creel, during 

 winter, in places where the effluent current, after 

 finding its way some hundred yards under ground, 

 emerged again into daylight, before discharging 

 itself by other subterraneous channels into the 

 llasay or Black-water, a considerable stream in 

 the neighbourhood. That the char of Loch Aehilty 

 do not, at least in any quantity, ascend its feeders 

 to spawn, I am convinced, for I have examined 

 these carefully the whole of the autumn, winter, 

 and spring months, and for some time during sum- 



