THK CHAR. lGi5 



Cuminelouglis, and the other two Stilloges, the largest of which contains about 

 five or six acres. In these loughs are several kinds of trout ; and in the forrner 

 is a species of fish called charrs, about 2 feet long, — the male gray-, the female 

 yellow-bellied ; when boiled the flesh of these charrs is as red and curdy as a 

 salmon, and eats more delicious than any trout. It is remarkable that this kind 

 of fish is often found in such lakes situated in mountainous places, as we learn 

 from Dr. Robinson's Natural History of Westmoreland and Cumberland.' In 

 the British Zoology of Pennant (vol. iii. p. 409, ed. 1812) it is mentioned on the 

 authority of' Dr. Vyse, an eminent physician and botanist at Limerick, that tlie 

 charr is found in the lake of Inchigeelagh, in the County of Cork, and in one or 

 two other small lakes in this neighbourhood.' In Dubourdieu's History of the 

 County of Antrim (vol. i. p. 119) there is a communication from Mr. Temple- 

 ton on the char of Lough Neagh, illustrated by a tigure; it is here stated to be 

 the same as the char of Windermere, as distmguished from the S. Salvelinus, Don. 

 Mr. Templeton here informs us that this fish is taken in L. Neagh ' from the end 

 of September to the end of November in nets along with pollans { Core(/o7nts 

 PoUaii]. They always keep the deep water, except in warm weather, when 

 they are sometimes found in the shallow. The best time for taking them is in 

 nights that are calm, clear, and a little frosty ; the capture of the pollans begins 

 to foil sooner than that of the whitings,' — the name by which the char is known 

 at this lake. It is likewise remarked, that ' the whiting is generally about 12 

 inches long, though I have seen one of 15.' Again, in his Catalogue of Irish 

 Vertebrate Animals (Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. new series), Mr. Templeton ob- 

 serves, — ' In a lake of the County of Donegal, near Dunfanaghy, I observed some 

 boys catching small char with lines and hooks baited with common earthworms. 

 * * * In L. Eaghish,* in the County Monaghan, I have known them caught 

 agreeing exactly in their colour with those of L. Neagh.* In two of the locali- 

 ties just noticed the char have become very scarce, it may be, even extinct. 

 In February, 1839, I was informed by Professor AUman, that in the lakes 

 at the source of the river Lee— those alluded to in the British Zoology — 

 celebrated till within the last ten years for their fine char, and which were 

 abundant, that they are not now to be procured, and are nearly, if not altogether, 

 destroyed. Their destruction is attributed by anglers and the people of the 

 neighbourhood to the pike, this voracious fish having much increased of late 

 years ; the natural haunts of the pike and the char are, however, very different. 

 When visiting some of the fishing stations at Lough Neagh, in September, 1834, 

 I was told by the fishermen about Crumlin, Antrim, Toome, &c., that they have 

 not known any char to be taken in the lake for at least ten years, although 

 about twenty }'ears ago they were abundant. Subsequently I was informed by 

 a most intelligent man, now resident in Belfast, but who lived for a long period 

 at Glenavy, on the shore of L. Neagh, and spent much time in fishing, that 

 char were abundant at the period just mentioned; he has seen five lunidred 

 taken at one draught of the net, and this not in the breeding season. A part of 

 the lake, which was the deepest (36 fathoms) within his range of fishing, was 

 called the whiting-hole, from being the chief haunt of this species. In 1837 I 

 offered a handsome reward for a Lough Neagh whiting, but it was in vain that 

 the fishermen of Glenavy endeavoured to ju-ocure one, although the once favoured 

 haunts of the species were tried, including the whiling-hole. The fishermen at 

 a second station tried willi no better success. 



" The cause of its disappearance from such a vast body of water as is con- 

 tained in this lake, or at least from its old liaunts there, I cannot pretend to 

 explain ; one fisherman questioned on the subject did, however, and without 

 hesitation, account for it by saying, that 'they once went down the river Bann 

 to the sea, and never came back again.' f 



* Incorrectly printed " Esk " in the Magazine. 



t The char is stated in Black's Picturesque Tourist of Scotland, 1844 (third 

 edition), p. 303, to have of late years disappi^ared from Loch Leven (Queen 

 Mary's). The lake is there described to be from 10 to 11 miles in circum- 



