THE POLLAN. 
169 
Coregoni known with certainty as British at the present time) may even, in this 
incomplete state, possess some interest. 
The. earliest notice of the species that I have seen is in Harris’s History of the 
County of Down, published in the year 1744, where, as well as in the Statistical 
Surveys of the Counties of Armagh and Antrim, it has subsequently been intro- 
duced as one of the fishes of Lough Neagh, under the name of Pollan ; but, as 
may be expected in works of this nature, little more than its mere existence is 
mentioned.* 
The habits of this fish do not, with the exception of its having been in some 
instances taken with the artificial fly, differ in any marked respect from those 
of the vendace and gwyniad, and are in accordance with such species of conti- 
nental Europe as are confined to inland waters, and of whose history we have 
been so fully informed by Bloch. The pollan approaches the shore in large 
shoals not only during spring and summer but when the autumn is far advanced. 
The usual time of fishing for it is in the afternoon, the boats returning the 
same evening. On the days of the 23rd, 24th, and 25th of September, 1834, 
which I spent in visiting the fishing stations at Lough Neagh, it was, along -with 
the common and great lake trout (S. Fario and S. ferox), caught plentifully 
in sweep-nets, cast at a very short distance from the shore. About a fort- 
night before this time, or in the first w r eek in September, the greatest take of 
the pollan ever recollected occurred at the bar-mouth, where the river Six-mile 
Water enters the lake. At either three or four draughts of the net 140 hundreds 
(123 individuals to the hundred) or 17,220 fish were taken ; at one draught more 
were captured than the boat could with safety hold, and they had consequently 
to be emptied on the neighbouring pier. They altogether filled five one-horse 
carts, and were sold on the spot at the rate of 3s. 4 d. a hundred, producing £23 
6s. 8c?. From 3s. 4c?. to 4s. a hundred has been the ordinary price this season 
at the lake side, or directly from the fishermen ; some years ago it was so low 
as Is. 8c?. a hundred, but at that time the regular system of carriage to a distance, 
as now adopted, did not exist. At the former rates they are purchased by car- 
riers, who convey them for sale to the more populous parts of the neighbouring 
country, and to the towns within a limited distance of the lake. They are brought 
in quantities to Belfast, and when the supply is good the cry of “ fresh pollan ” 
prevails even to a greater extent than that of “ fresh herring,” though both fishes 
are in season at the same period of the year. In the month of June, 1834, 50 
hundreds (6150 individuals) of pollans and 125 lbs. weight of trout were taken 
at one draught of a net, at another part of the lake, near Ram’s Island, which was 
the most successful capture made there for twenty-four years. In 1834 this 
fish was more abundant than ever before known. Like the gwyniad and ven- 
dace, the pollan dies very soon after being taken from the water, f and likewise 
jfeeps for a very short time. It is not in general estimation for the table, but is, 
I think, a very good and well-flavoured fish. 
'Though permanently resident, the pollan is very far from being generally dif- 
fused throughout Lough Neagh, and, unlike the herring, shows but little caprice 
in the parts of the shore it periodically approaches, rarely appearing in places 
bordering its chief haunt, and which offer to our view in every respect a similar 
character. An example of this is afforded by a comparison of the beach between 
the river Mayola and Toome, where it rarely occurs, and that from the Six-mile 
Water to Shane’s Castle, its favourite resort. A few houses contiguous to the 
latter locality were, so long as they existed, dignified with the name of Pollan’s 
* In Harris’s “ Down,” and Coote’s “ Armagh,” it is supposed to be the same 
as the shad. In Dubourdieu’s “ Antrim,” the scientific appellation of Salmo 
lavaretus is given in addition to its provincial name. 
f Pennant states this of the gwyniad, and Sir William Jardine of the vendace 
(Edin. Journ. of Nat. and Geog. Science) ; Dr. Knox, however, says of the latter 
species, ‘ ‘ that they live as long as most fishes on being removed from the water.” 
— Trans. Roy. Soc. of Edin. vol. xii. p. 505. 
