243 



THE COMPLETE ANGLEK. 



[PART i. 



with polished marble. This fish never exceeds fifteen or 

 sixteen inches in length, and 'tis spotted like a trout, and 

 has scarce a bone but on the back. But this, though I do 

 not know whether it make the angler sport, yet I would 

 have you take notice of it, because it is a rarity, and of so 

 high esteem with persons of great note. 



Nor would I have you ignorant of a rare fish called a 

 Guiniad, 1 of which I shall tell you what Camden, and others 

 speak. The river Dee, which runs by Chester, springs in 

 Merionethshire; and, as it runs toward Chester, it runs 

 through Pemble-Mere, which is a large water: and it is 

 observed, that though the river Dee abounds with salmon, 

 and Pemble-Mere with the Gruiniad, yet there is never any 

 salmon caught in the mere, nor a guiniad in the river. And 

 now my next observation shall be of the Barbel. 



water, and especially in Coniston and Buttermere. Leigh says it is found 

 in Connington-mere, in Lancashire, and Yarrell that it occurs in several of 

 the lakes of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Thompson, in his "Natural 

 History of Ireland," p. 166 (the volume just published], gives an account 

 of the many loughs in which it is found in Ireland. 



The char is nearly twice the size of the herring. The back is of an 

 olive green ; its belly of a light vermilion, softening in some into white, 

 and changing into a deep red at the insertion of the fins. They are caught 

 only in the winter season, when twenty dozen a-day are sometimes taken 

 by a single boat. In summer they retire to the rocky caves below, some 

 of which are said to be unfathomable : nor do they breed in any lake in 

 which such deep recesses are not found. ED. 



1 The Gwyniad, called the Schelly in Cumberland, is very numerous in 

 Ulswater, and other large lakes in Cumberland. It is gregarious. I had 

 some sent me from Bala Lake, in North Wales. The fish is not unlike a 

 herring in appearance. ED. 



