FISHES 5 1 1 



September to the middle of February, during which time they 

 assemble themselves in what is here called schools like Herring.' 

 Of Ulleswater, Clarke states : ' The Char of this lake are smaller 

 than those of Winandermere, but in my opinion equal in flavour 

 to the best of them. There is indeed one species of Char in 

 Winandermere, called Ked-bellied Char, which is far inferior 

 to the Ullswater Charr : these are the kind usually sent to the 

 metropolis, but as they have the name, it is enough.' The 

 Ulleswater Charr are extinct. Their race perished owing to 

 the pollution of the stream in which they spawned, by dele- 

 terious matter from the mines. Robinson, who wrote in 1709, 

 supplies a quaint account of Buttermere : ' The fourth remark- 

 able Lake is Buttermere, wherein is bred a sort of Fish called 

 Charrs, much like the Ullswater Trout ; the Male is grey, the 

 Female yellow-bellied ; the Flesh upon them is Red, and crisp 

 to the Taste. They are more luscious and delicious than the 

 Trout. They are in this country baked in pots well seasoned 

 with spices, and sent up to London as a great Rarity. . . . These 

 Charrs are a Fish bred in this Water, and are peculiar to it and 

 Windermer- water.' 1 Clarke wrote that Buttermere possessed 

 ' the best fish of any (Ulleswater only excepted), viz. charr and 

 trout for potting, but not very plentiful.' Dr. Heysham wrote 

 that Charr ' are found in Ullswater and Ennerdale lake, but are 

 most plentiful in Winandermere in Westmoreland, where large 

 quantities are annually taken, and when potted are sent to 

 almost every part of the kingdom.' A full-grown Charr is 

 about 10 inches in length, and, if taken in season, weighs 

 about 10 oz. 



Sir Daniel Fleming, Bart., was probably the first to describe 

 the habits of these Windermere Charr, about the year 1671 : 

 ' Up the river Eoutha go yearly great plenty of large trouts, 

 and up Brathy many Case (a fish very like a charr, but of a 

 different species, it spawning at another time of the year), and 

 tho' these waters runs a good way in one channel before they 

 fall into Winander-meer-water, and are both very clear and 

 bottomed alike, yet the owners of Rydal-hall [i.e. the writer 



1 Essay towards a Natural History of Westmorland and Cumberland, 

 p. 60. 



