NORTHERN CHARR. 67 



V 



drained, except at the season of spawning, and their decided 

 partiality for clear water and a hard bottom is then very 

 conspicuous. Winandermere has two principal feeders, the 

 rivers Rothay and Brathay : the Rothay has a sandy bottom, 

 but the channel of the Brathay is rocky. These streams 

 unite at the western corner of the head of the lake, below 

 Clappers-gate, at a place called the Three-foot-brander, and 

 after a short course boldly enter the lake together. The 

 spawning season is in November and December ; about 

 which time the Charr in shoals make their way up both 

 these rivers, but invariably, before depositing their spawn, 

 those fish which have ascended over the sandy bed of the 

 Rothay return and pass up the rocky channel of the Bra- 

 thay.* A few Charr also spawn in the lake ; and it is 

 observed that they frequent the stony parts only which re- 

 semble the bottom of the Brathay. 



Charr, even at the same season of the year, exhibit con- 

 siderable difference in colour, which has been attributed to 

 different causes. M. Jurine, when describing the Salmo 

 umbla of the Lake of Geneva, which fish there is little or no 

 doubt is identical with our Northern Charr, says the females 

 are the finest in colour. Mr. Mascall, in a communication to 

 the Magazine of Natural History for April 1835, states that 

 he found the males of the Charr of Ennerdale Lake in Cumber- 

 land superior to the females in colour. It is not improbable that 

 the degree of colour may depend, not so much upon the sex, as 

 upon the constitutional vigour of the individual fish ; a cir- 

 cumstance observed in the periodical assumption of peculiar 

 tints in other animals. In reference to these variations in 

 the intensity of the colours, several distinctions have been 

 supposed to exist in the Charr of the Northern lakes, and 

 the names of Case Charr, Gilt Charr, Red Charr, and Silver 



* The Trout, in their spawning season, prefer the Rothay. 



