THE CHAIl. 
165 
C.ummeloughs, and the other two Stilloges, the largest of which contains about 
five or six acres. In these loughs are several kinds of trout ; and in the former 
is a species of fish called cliarrs, about 2 feet long, — the male gray-, the female 
yellow-bellied ; when boiled the flesh of these charrs is as red and curdy as a 
salmon, and eats more delicious than any trout. It is remarkable that this kind 
of fish is often found in such lakes situated in mountainous places, as we learn 
from Dr. Robinson’s Natural History of Westmoreland and Cumberland.’ In 
the British Zoology of Pennant (vol. iii. p. 409, ed. 1812) it is mentioned on the 
authority of ‘ Dr. Yyse, an eminent physician and botanist at Limerick, that the 
chair is found in the lake of Inchigeelagh, in the County of Cork, and in one or 
two other small lakes in this neighbourhood.’ In Dubourdieu’s History of the 
County of Antrim (vol. i. p. 119) there . is a communication from Mr. Temple- 
ton on the char of Lough Neagh, illustrated by a figure; it is here stated to be 
the same as the char of Windermere, as distinguished from the S. Salvelinus, Don. 
Mr. Templeton here informs us that this fish is taken in L. Neagh 4 from the end 
of September to the end of November in nets along with pollans [Coregonus 
Pollan']. They always keep the deepwater, except in warm weather, when 
they are sometimes found in the shallow. The best time for taking them is in 
nights that are calm, clear, and a little frosty ; the capture of the pollans begins 
to fail sooner than that of the whitings,’— the name by which the char is known 
at this lake. It is likewise remarked, that ‘ the whiting is generally about 12 
inches long, though I have seen one of 15.’ Again, in his Catalogue of Irish 
Vertebrate Animals (Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. new series), Mr. Templeton ob- 
serves, — 4 In a lake of the County of Donegal, near Dunfanaghy, I observed some 
boys catching small char with lines and hooks baited with common earthworms. 
* * * In L. Eaghish,* in the County Monaghan, I have known them caught 
agreeing exactly in their colour with those of L. Neagh.’ In two of the locali- 
ties just noticed the char have become very scarce, it may be, even extinct, 
in February, 1839, I was informed by Professor Allman, that in the lakes 
at the source of the river Lee — those alluded to in the British Zoology- 
celebrated till within the last ten years for their fine char, and which were 
abundant, that they are not now to be procured, and are nearly, if not altogether, 
destroyed. Their destruction is attributed by anglers and the people of the 
neighbourhood to the pike, this voracious fish having much increased of late 
years ; the natural haunts of the pike and the char are, however, very different. 
When visiting some of the fishing stations at Lough Neagh, in September, 1834, 
I was told by the fishermen about Crumlin, Antrim, Toome, &c., that they have 
not known any char to be taken in the lake for at least ten years, although 
about twenty years ago they were abundant. Subsequently I was informed by 
a most intelligent man, now resident in Belfast, but who lived for a long period 
at Glenavy, on the shore of L. Neagh, and spent much time in fishing, that 
char were abundant at the period just mentioned; he has seen fite hundred 
taken at one draught of the net, and this not in the breeding season. A part of 
the lake, which was the deepest (36 fathoms) within his range of fishing, was 
called the whiting-hole, from being the chief haunt of this species. In 1837 I 
offered a handsome reward for a Lough Neagh whiting, but it was in vain that 
the fishermen of Glenavy endeavoured to procure one, although the once favoured 
haunts of the species were tried, including the whiting-hole. The fishermen at 
a second station tried with no better success. 
44 The cause of its disappearance from such a vast body of water as is con- 
tained in this lake, or at least from its old haunts there, I cannot pretend to 
explain ; one fisherman questioned on the subject did, however, and without 
hesitation, account for it by saying, that 4 they once went down the river Barm 
to the sea, and never came back again.’ f 
* Incorrectly printed 44 Esk ” in the Magazine. 
f The char is stated in Black’s Picturesque Tourist of Scotland, 1844 (third 
edition), p. 303, to have of late years disappeared from Loch Leven (Queen 
Mary’s). The lake is there described to be from 10 toll miles in circum- 
