THE CHAR. 
163 
have the two or three first rays and their connecting membrane dusky, and the 
remainder red, and of a deeper hue than on any part of the body : anal fin partaking 
at its base of the colour of the part of the body to which it is attached, dusky 
towards the tip ; white margin to the first ray in some of the brighter-coloured 
specimens only : caudal fin gray, of different shades in all ; in the brightest in- 
dividual varied with red, which appears at the base of the lower lobe. 
“ The males are generally more gracefully formed than the females, and most 
of them rather brighter in colour, but there is no external character so strikingly 
different as to lead to a certain knowledge of the sex; some of the largest finned 
are females — in the Loch Grannoch char the males had much the larger fins 
and the sex was as unerringly distinguished by the colour as by the form, the 
accuracy of the distinction in both cases being established by dissection. Both 
sexes of the Lough Melvin fish represent the Welsh char. 
“ The colour of the flesh when boiled was rather pale, between the ‘sienna 
yellow’ and ‘flesh red’ of Syme’s Nomenclature of Colours; no difference of 
colour in that of the sexes. The milt and roe were in these specimens ready for 
exclusion. The ova, severally reckoned from a fish 11 inches in length, and 
which had not shed any, w r ere 959 in number, and of a pale yellowish colour — 
the ova generally, though equally mature, were lighter coloured than in the 
Loch Grannoch char ; they were of the same size, 2 lines in diameter. 
“ The remains of food were found in only one out of the twelve specimens, and 
appeared to be a portion of the case of a caddis-w'orm. The vertebrae, as reck- 
oned in two specimens, male and female, were 60 in number.* 
“ Lord Cole informs me that this fish is called ‘ Freshwater Herring ’ at Lough 
Melvin, though in the same part of the country the term ‘ char ’ is applied to 
the more ordinary state of the species as taken in other lakes. Its differing 
from the so-called char, in being an insipid bad fish for the table, and pale in 
the flesh, is the chief reason of its being considered distinct from it. It will, 
however, be seen in the following pages, that the term ‘ Freshwater Herring ’ 
is applied to the char of several of the lakes in Connaught, and from one of 
which an example before me is identical with the fish of the English lakes. 
Examples of the Lough Melvin char, taken at the same time as those just 
noticed, were sent by Lord Cole to Mr. Yarrell, and in the Supplement to this 
author’s History of British Fishes (p. 27) are noticed as identical with the 
Welsh species. 
“ London, May, 1840. — During the latter half of this month I had the opportu- 
nity of seeing quantities of char from Windermere exposed for sale at Mr. 
Groves’, the well-known fishmonger in Bond Street. On examination they differed 
much from each other in size of fins : their colour was precisely that of the Lough 
Melvin fish ; and, like it too, the flesh of specimens I bought in the last week of 
the month was pale-coloured and soft — they were now in such bad condition that 
Mr. Groves ceased to purchase them.f 
“ So far, the examples of char treated of were examined when fresh. The fol- 
lowing, after being preserved in spirits or in a dry state, have been received from 
the undermentioned Scottish lakes : 
“ L. Inch — which is one of the localities for char noticed by Pennant. Hence 
two fine specimens, about 14 inches in length, were kindly sent me, in May, 
* The vertebrae reckoned in a male and female of the Loch Grannoch fish 
were in the former 60, and in the latter 62 or 63 ; this must be considered an 
accidental variation. 
f When at the inn at Waterhead, at the northern extremity of Coniston Water, 
during a tour to the English lakes in June, 1835, a number of char from this lake 
were kept alive by our host in a capacious w r ooden box or trough, into which a 
constant stream of water poured. They were fine examples of the species, about 
a foot in length. Here I was informed that a supply of this delicate fish was 
always kept up, that the “ curious ” visitor might gratify his taste at any season 
by having fresh char set before him at the rate of ten shillings for the dozen of 
fish. 
m 2 
