THE BEST KINDS OF FISH FOE EIVEES. Ill 



sportsman, to the salmon itself; and any one who 

 has seen the manner in which some of the western 

 Irish rivers and lakes swarm with this delicious and 

 game fish, wUl readily testify to the value of such an 

 introduction. 



At the charr I must pause. Charr at one time 

 were far more plentiful in this country than they are 

 now. Their principal habitat was the Lake district, 

 when few of the lakes were without them. They are 

 " found also in many of the Irish lakes, in one or two 

 in Wales, and perhaps some half-dozen or a dozen in 

 Scotland. The practice, however, of taking these fish 

 in such vast quantities in nets, when they come in and 

 to the shallow water to spawn, has terribly thinned 

 them, and in many lakes they are very much reduced 

 in numbers. The charr, moreover, is the most delir 

 cious fish that inhabits our fresh waters, and this, 

 too, is another incentive to its destruction. There 

 are, according to some ichthyologists, several species of 

 charr ; according to Others, they are simply varieties. 

 It is believed by some that the charr of Windermere, 

 Llyn Bodlyn, Lough Melvin, and elsewhere in the 

 British Isles, is identical with the Ombre Chevalier, 

 I shall touch on this point when I come to the con- 

 sideration of Lakes. It is tolerably certain, however, 

 that it is not identical with the great Northern or 



