lakes, and are but seldom taken, although we doubt not that they might be so, were the simple practice adopted of hanging a herring-net in the deep water, instead of trying only the winter method of hauling in shore. In fact they retire during the warmer months to the deepest parts of the still waters, the fishermen engaged in throwing their nets for pike, perch, and trout, over the very grounds where -during the colder season of the year-the char abound, never catching any throughout the summer season. Yet we caught them by the former method, in their prime silvery state, in Sutherland in June.

On the approach of the spawning period they seek the mouths of the tributary streams, and are taken in vast numbers at the very period when their preservation and consequent increase ought to be most strictly attended to, and when, in truth, they begin to deteriorate in their condition. At this season the colouring of the upper parts becomes darker, the fins are very rich, and the sides and abdomen assume a beautiful and brilliant red,—the whole spotted with small marks of a paler hue.*

*The chief feeder or head stream of Windermere consists of two branches, the Brathay and the Rothay, which meet a short way above the lake, into which they speedily pour their united waters. The Brathay is the left hand branch-as we ascend from the lake-and draws its sources from the mountain vales of Langdale, reaching Windermere without any resting-place, while the Rothay has previously formed and flowed from two consecutive lakes, Grassmere and Rydal. The char, in ascending from Windermere to spawn, invariably turn to the left, and ascend the Brathay-though to no great distance-and as invariably-so far at least as spawning purposes are concerned-avoid the lake descended waters of the Rothay. They also spawn lower

Although these fish-in a culinary point of view -are deservedly the most highly prized of all our permanently fresh water species, we are sorry to say that they are seldom attainable by the angler's skill. Of late years, however, they have certainly risen more freely in the meres of the north of England than in former times; but the capture of a char by rod and line is still regarded as an uncommon occurrence. In angling for this fish the same flies may be used as those best adapted for the smaller sized lake-trouts; and as the latter may be said to occur wherever the former is found, the sportsman has the better chance of making amends for the probable disappointment which will attend his pursuit of the one, by a more successful capture of the other.

We owe the following interesting memoranda to our esteemed nephew, Mr. John Wilson, Junior, of Elleray."The season for fishing char (with rod and line) in Windermere and Coniston, commences about the end of May, and, I should say, is over by the first or second week in July. Trolling with a smallish minnow is by far the most successful mode of angling for this fish. It may, however, be taken with the artificial fly,-the green and grey drake being the favourites. I killed three one day in May last with a small red professor. A Bowness fisherman on the same day, trolling without inter

down the Lake of Windermere, at the mouth-or a short way upwards of the stream called Troutbeck, which is also derived from the flow of mountain tributaries, without any lesser or intermediate lake.

mission from six in the morning till six in the evening, killed six and twenty, being the greatest number that has been taken in Windermere in a single day by one person for many years. In Coniston, where this fish is more abundant, I believe it is by no means uncommon to kill three or four dozen in a day. In regard to the size of char in Windermere, I should say they average three to the pound. I never saw one that was a pound. Billy Balmer told me that he saw one that was a pound and a quarter, and that it was the largest ever taken in Windermere."

In relation to the same subject, in a different locality, we may also add the following extract of a letter with which we have been favoured from another skilful hand. "A small red char is found in Loch Achilty, Ross-shire, on the property of Sir George Mackenzie. It takes the fly greedily in warm still weather, and what is singular, during all the summer and autumnal months. I have captured eighteen in a forenoon in July,-raising many more. My flies were of various sorts, from a midge to one as large as a sea trout fly. The water of Loch Achilty is singularly deep and transparent,—the soil is rich and loamy, and contains large quantities of imbedded wood,-black oak especially. It is supplied by numbers of minute streams, but has no visible outlet, being supposed to discharge itself subterraneously. The char found in it average eight or nine inches in length; we, however, caught one much larger. They rise with less velocity than the trout, and

on missing the fly, unless injured, will return to the hook. In Strathglass there is a Loch Bruiach, where char are caught of a much larger size, but chiefly with the net,-except in the month of October, when, as our informant, the Rev. Mr. Chisholm, told us, they may be taken in the shallows with the rod, but at no other season."

On dissecting the char which we killed in Sutherland (by net) in June, we found the stomach of the majority empty, but the lower part of the intestine filled with a green vegetable residuum. This we ascertained to be the remains of the cases of aquatic larvæ (Phryganida), a few of which we afterwards discovered in a half digested state in the upper portion of the intestinal canal. Where this natural bait occurs we have always found the fly formerly described under the name of " green mantle" to be a killing lure,-yet we tried it unavailingly, though perseveringly, in the northern Loch in question,-Loch Borley, near Keoldale, Durness. It may be mentioned as a singular fact, that although well stocked with char, it is believed not to contain a single trout. A curious coincidence with Loch Achilty may also be noted regarding it, to wit,-that its waters escape by a subterranean communication with another loch, of which we at present forget the name, but which contains fine fresh water trout, some of them so light and silvery as to exhibit much of the aspect of sea-trout. There is another loch near these two, which contains neither trout nor char, and as

From the MS. of T. T. Stoddart, Esq.

a fact of this kind is not at once instinctively discovered by the angler, and was not previously communicated to us, we fished it for half a day with more skill than success. Our movements were steadily watched the whole time by a south country shepherd, who, rolled up in his plaid, his dog Yarrow close beside him, and both beneath the cozy shelter of a whin dike, seemed curious to ascertain how long we would continue our attempt at sport. When at last, despairingly, we turned us homewards,—a hospitable and most pleasing home was Mrs. Scobie's,-and neared our pastoral friends couched in their "sunny lair," the "human" without moving either head or heel, drawled out as follows: "Ye'll no hae killed mony trouts there?" "No, we've had no sport at all.” "Na, na, it's weel kent there was never a trout in that loch frae the beginnin' o' the creation." He thus possessed the key to our discomfiture; but, from some unknown silential principle, on which we have since deeply pondered but failed to ascertain, he had declined or at least delayed, to reveal the secrets of that dark abyss. However, we consoled ourselves with the "experientia docet" of Dr. Ruddiman, and philosophically repeated as we travelled across those breezy uplands,

Happy the man who studying nature's laws,

From known effects can trace the secret cause.

THE GRAYLING.

*

This beautiful fish delights in clear and rapid

* Thymallus vulgaris, Cuv.-Salmo thymallus, Linn.