506 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



fishing with the destructive engine known as an 'otter/ now 

 illegal. The Trout of the Eden sometimes attain a weight of 

 five and six pounds, occasionally half a pound more ; but heavier 

 fishes have occasionally been taken in some of the lakes. The 

 Eev. T. P. Hartley saw a trout of 7f lbs. caught in a big ' top 

 net' near Rawlinson's Nab, Windermere. The late Mr. 

 Whalley, a local authority on the Salmonidse, pronounced the 

 fish to be an undoubted Great Lake Trout (S. ferox). The late 

 Dr. Day degraded the so-called Great Lake Trout to the position 

 of a variety of salmo trutta. Whether this Windermere Trout 

 represented the variety S. ferox, it is of course impossible for 

 me to say. It would have weighed considerably more than it 

 did had it been in good condition. But whatever view of the 

 question may please our local anglers, there can be no doubt 

 as to the fact that Ulleswater was at one time considered to be 

 the home of the Great Lake Trout, and that these fishes are 

 now regarded by most of the local fishermen as extinct. The 

 earliest reference to Trout of large size that I have as yet been 

 able to discover is contained in the recently published Rydal MS. 



Sir Daniel Fleming enters in his accounts of October 1683 : 

 1 Given to Mr. Mounsey's man for bringing a great trout, 

 £00 00s. 06d.' Captain Hatton alludes to a similar fish in a 

 letter of October 25, 1692, addressed to John Ray : — 



1 Sir, — . . . Whilst I am now writing, a Westmorland 

 acquaintance of mine coming to see me, in Discourse did acci- 

 dentally mind me of the Surprize I was in, some years since, at 

 Lowther Hall in Cumberland, the House of Sir John Lowther, 

 seeing at Sir John's Table a fresh Water Trout, which was 38 

 inches in Length, and 27 in Girth, taken in Hull's water, a 

 large Lake in Westmorland, in which I was assured by Sir John, 

 and other persons of unquestionable credit, trouts of that Size, 

 (nay larger) are frequently taken.' 1 



Clarke tells us regarding Ulleswater that ' the fish found in 

 this Lake are trout, perch, eels, char, skellies ; and a fifth 

 peculiar to this and Buttermere (where there are very few), 

 called the Grey Trout. These grey trouts in form resemble the 

 other trouts, but are much larger, weighing thirty or forty 

 1 Correspondence of John Ray, p. 268. 



