VOL. i-VII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 421 



tuated in the parish of Trawsvynnyd, and is called Llyn Raithlyn ; as it does not 

 lie near any road, a common traveller cannot hear any thing about it, but by 

 very extraordinary accident. Having been informed that perch were frequently 

 caught there, which were crooked near the tail, Mr. B. procured fish of this sort 

 at 3 different times ; as he intended to preserve them in spirits, he always de- 

 sired that they should be of a small size. These fish were all of them most 

 apparently crooked in that part; which appears still more in those of a larger size, 

 and some of them have been takeh of nearly 2lb. weight. These fish are not 

 only crooked near the tail, and for about one third of the whole length of their 

 body ; there is likewise a very remarkable protuberance on each side, which he 

 opened with a knife, but did not observe it to differ materially from other parts 

 of the flesh. In eating, they are not to be distinguished from the common 

 perch. ' 



Mr. B. heard of trout, which were crooked in the same part, said to be pecu- 

 liar to the river Eynion in Cardiganshire, a small brook that empties itself into 

 the Dovey, near Eggiwys Vach, and is on the road from Machentleth in Mont- 

 gomeryshire, to Talypont in Cardiganshire.* Mr. B. procured at two several 

 times specimens of these trout likewise. They are crooked in the same manner 

 near the tail ; but, as the make of a trout is more taper than that of a perch, 

 the curve does not appear so strongly : no one, however, who looks at them with 

 any degree of attention, cjm have the least doubt of their differing most mate- 

 rially from other fish of the same kind. These trout are caught only in a 

 small basin of perhaps 8 or 9 feet deep, which the river Eynion forms after a fall 

 from the rocks. By very accurate accounts from those who have caught both 

 the perch and trout, it appears that it is not above half of these fish that are thus 

 crooked ; and that the others do not in any respect differ from the common ones 

 of these two sorts. 



As Mr. B. often observed that the existence of such fish was doubted by the 

 Welsh themselves, till he had procured these specimens, it occasioned his inquir- 

 ing with regard to monocular fish, which are said by Giraldus Cambrensis, to be 

 found in the lakes of Snowden. This writer was archdeacon of Brecknock, and 

 attended Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury, in a progress which he made in the 

 year 1 188 through South and North Wales, to recommend a collection for a 



* In Dalekarlia, a province of Sweden, near Falilun, are two small lakes, famous for the singular 

 ihape of the perch, wherewith they abound. These perch grow to the common size, and are of a 

 good taste, but Ihey have all a hump on their back. This peculiarity is taken notice of in Linnsei. 

 Fauna Suecica, p. lis. The country people in the neighbourhood imagine that it may be occa- 

 sioned by the quality of the water in those lakes, which might probably be impregnated with some 

 mineral sail, especially as they are situated near the largest copper mine in Europe. Dan-. 



SOLANDER. 



There is no Coppermine near Llyn Raithlyn, or the river .Eynion. D.\ines BAKai.voTON. 

 — Orig. 



