22 THE VENDACE. 



solve ; and yet those attempting to solve the problem may be 

 all working on different fishes. Any man who may know even 

 a little about fish, will have seen that the so-called dish of 

 whitebait, served at a fashionable tavern, is a varied mass of 

 minnows, young bleak, infantile sprats, and the fry of other 

 well-known fish. So much for this tavern celebrity ! 



Besides whitebait there are other mysterious fish — especially 

 in Scotland — ^which are well worthy of being alluded to. An 

 idea prevails in Scotland that the vendace of Lochmaben and 

 the powan of Lochlomond are really herrings forced into fresh 

 water, and slightly altered by the circumstances of a new dwell- 

 ing-place, change of food, and other causes. One learned 

 person lately ascribed the presence of sea fish in fresh water 

 to a great wave which had at one time passed over the 

 country. But no doubt the real cause is that these peculiar fish 

 were brought to those lakes ages ago by monks or other persons 

 who were adepts in piscicultural art. 



A brief summary of the chief points in the habits of these 

 mysterious fish may interest the reader. The "vendiss," as 

 it is locally called, occurs nowhere but in the waters at Loch- 

 maben, in Dumfriesshire; and it is thought by the general 

 run of the coimtry people to be, like the powan of Lochlomond, 

 a fresh-water herring. The history of this fish is quite 

 unknown, but it is thought to have been introduced into the 

 Castle Loch of Lochmaben in the early monkish times, when 

 it was essential, for the proper observance of church fasts, to 

 have an ample supply of fish for fast-day fare. It is curious 

 as regards the vendace that they float about in shoals, that they 

 make the same kind of poppling noise as the herring, and that 

 they cannot be easily taken by any kind of bait. At certain 

 seasons of the year the people assemble for the purpose of 

 holding a vendace feast, and at one time large quantities of the 

 fish were caught by means of a sweep net ; but of late years the 

 vendace has been scarce; only six were taken this year (1873). 

 The fish is said to have been found in other waters besides 

 those of Lochmaben, but I have never been able to see a 

 specimen anywhere else. There are a great number of tradi- 

 tions afloat about the vendace, and a story of its having been 

 introduced to the lake by Mary Queen of Scots. The' country 

 people take a pride in showing their fish to strangers. The 

 principal information I can give about the vendace, without 

 becoming technical, is, that it is a beautiful and very symmetri- 



