262 ANGLING. 



lakes, and are but seldom taken, although we doubt 

 not that they might be so, were the simple practice 

 adopted of hanging a herring- net in the deep water, 

 instead of trying only the winter method of hauling 

 in shore. In fact they retire during the warmer 

 months to the deepest parts of the still waters, 

 the fishermen engaged in throwing their nets for 

 pike, perch, and trout, over the very grounds where 

 during the colder season of the year the char 

 abound, never catching any throughout the sum- 

 mer season. Yet we caught them by the former 

 method, in their prime silvery state, in Sutherland 

 in June. 



On the approach of the spawning period they 

 seek the mouths of the tributary streams, and are 

 taken in vast numbers at the very period when 

 their preservation and consequent increase ought 

 to be most strictly attended to, and when, in truth, 

 they begin to deteriorate in their condition. At 

 this season the colouring of the upper parts becomes 

 darker, the fins are very rich, and the sides and 

 abdomen assume a beautiful and brilliant red, the 

 whole spotted with small marks of a paler hue.* 



* The chief feeder or head stream of Windermere consists of two 

 branches, the Brathay and the Rothay, which meet a short way above 

 the lake, into which they speedily pour their united waters. The 

 Brathay is the left hand branch as we ascend from the lake and 

 draws its sources from the mountain vales of Langdale, reaching Win- 

 dermere without any resting-place, while the Rothay has previously 

 formed and flowed from two consecutive lakes, Grassmere and Rydal. 

 The char, in ascending from Windermere to spawn, in variably turn to 

 the left, and ascend the Brathay though to no great distance and as 

 invariably so far at least as spawning purposes are concerned avoid 

 the lake descended waters of the Rothay. They also spawn lower 



