THE CHARS. 
259 
roe have been known to pass through a rough current, but 
still without remaining in it. Their habitual residence, howevei-, 
is in the deeper lakes, and usually near the bottom; for it is 
only when the sexual impulse prevails, the season of which is 
not the same in each kind, that they come near the borders 
or into shallow water, so as to he within reach of the net. It 
is then, in the colder months of the year, that they sport near 
the margin, and proceed in numerous assemblages to a not very 
considerable distance up a favoured river to shed their spawn; 
or perhaps some well-known shallower part of the lake itself is 
chosen for the purpose; but in any case the situation must 
have a hard or stony bottom, not unlike that of the lower 
depth of the lake in which they live at other seasons. It has 
even been noticed that when some Chars have passed into 
rivers which flow into their lake, but which have a sandy 
bottom, they have retraced their course without having performed 
this duty of nature. 
From the fact already noticed, that all which have been 
enclosed in a net at one time have been males, and afterwards 
the assemblage has consisted of none hut females, it seems 
probable that at an early stage of the development of the milt 
and roe they keep apart from each other. Yet afterwards they 
mingle together in an apparently indiscriminate multitude, 
although the season is not the same in the different species; 
for while some are known to shed the roe as early as October 
and through November, other species perform this function 
from December to the end of January. Rut whenever performed 
it is the time when the fishery is carried on, for the most part 
with nets; with which from twenty to thirty dozen have been 
caught at a single haul, although more commonly the quantity 
taken is much less than this. All the kinds of Chars are held 
in esteem for the table; but as they soon lose their delicate 
flavour, a principal use of them is by preserving them in pots; 
in which condition they form a fashionable dish. But to what 
extent the method of preparation can deceive the palate appears 
from the fact, that when the supply of the favourite article 
fails, little scruple is said to be felt in substituting the Trout 
in its place without fear of detection. 
It is affirmed by the fishermen that Chars cannot be caught 
in any quantity except in the cold season of the year; and 
