THE CHAR. 259 



which he designates as the Welsh char, is speci- 

 fically different from the former, which he names 

 the northern char. If they are actually different, 

 then it is chiefly to the northern species (that is, 

 the characteristic kind of the lakes of Cumberland 

 and Westmoreland) that the following observations 

 apply, for we have no personal knowledge of the 

 Welsh fishes. Our own belief, indeed, is that both 

 the case char and the red char inhabit Windermere, 

 and that the principal distinction in their habits 

 consists in this, that the former ascends the rivers, 

 where it spawns about Michaelmas, whereas the 

 latter deposits its ova along the shores of the lake, 

 and not till the end of December, or the beginning 

 of the year. Let this fact be more attended to 

 than it has hitherto been in attempting to deter- 

 mine upon the distinction or identity of the species. 

 We are certain, however, that the old notion is 

 erroneous, that the case char is distinguished by 

 having the first rays of the ventral and anal fins of 

 an opaque milky white, while these rays are uniform 

 with the rest of the fin in the other so called spe- 

 cies.* This opaque margin is common to all char 



* To illustrate this character of colour, we shall here extract the 

 following memoranda from our note-book, made some seasons back, 

 on six specimens of char (supposed to exhibit characteristic ex- 

 amples of the different varieties or kinds), selected from a hawl of 

 the net in Windermere on the 12th of December. " No. 1. is a very 

 beautiful fish the ground colour of the body pale ashy brown, some- 

 what lighter beneath the lateral line. The sides are richly marked 

 with scarlet spots of different sizes ; the whole of the under surface, 

 from the pectoral fins to the tail, is brilliant scarlet. The fins are 

 margined anteriorly with an opaque white stripe, followed by a black- 

 ish brown portion, passing posteriorly into deep crimson. The tail is 



