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Page 144:-
On the 28th of October 1784, I was upon the shore above
Cunza, (see plate XI.) when I observed a boat coming towards
me, and near the same time perceived it stop, and the men in
it take something out of the water; on their coming ashore,
they told me, that in coming, they saw two large trouts
floating upon the surface of the Lake with their bellies
uppermost, close alongside each other, and seemingly dead.
On laying hold of one of them, they seemed to be entangled,
but in lifting it out of the water the other made its
escape; they then discovered, that these had seized between
them a small trout, and each seemed determined to lose its
life rather than its prey: they had struggled till life was
almost spent, and both might have been easily taken if the
fishermen had believed either to have been alive; the
lesser, which they took, weighed about a pound and a half,
but was very ill fed; they other they supposed to weigh
above two pounds; their being obliged to prey upon their own
species is a proof of the great scarcity of their proper
food. The charr in this lake are of excellent quality for
potting, many pots of which are sent to different parts of
the kingdom every year; I do not, however, think them
superior in quality to the Ulswater trout, and are
distinguishable from them more by their colour than taste;
so much alike, indeed, are they, that many pots of Ulswater
trout are sold for Winandermere charr. They are taken in
this Lake in perfection only from the beginning of September
to the middle of February, during which time they assemble
themselves in what is here called Schools, like
herring; sometimes near the shore, sometimes near the middle
of the Lake; when thus assembled, (if observed by the
fishermen who watch at these seasons,) they surround them
with nets, and take them into their boats without dragging
them on shore *. Trout and charr are taken in
Ulswater promiscuously all the year over, and are sold in
Penrith market every week, which, as I said before, is not
the case here. There are two kinds of charr here as well as
in Ulswater, (viz.) the silver and the golden charr, which
some have distinguished by the male and female: That,
however, I deny, from my own observations, too tedious to
mention here. They are two different species, commonly here
known by the white-belly'd and red-belly'd charr, the white
are much more valuable; in this Lake both kinds are larger
than in Ulswater; the golden or red-belly'd charr in
Ulswater are never used for potting, but are sold at the
rate of two-pence or three-pence a pound with the coarser
trouts, which here are distinguished in value, not by their
size, but their tongue.
In the latter end of Summer, amazing quantities of winged
pissmires, (or ants) alight upon the surface of this Lake,
upon which animal the charr feed with wonderful greediness,
and to this food some attribute the colour of their flesh in
the Autumnal season. Pike is taken with nets, and sometimes
with the bait, but not very often, and affords little
entertainment to the angler; perch, in like manner, and
eels, but more frequently with bait. The fishery belongs to
the lord of the manor, viz. the King, and is divided into
what is called (here) three cables, the rector having
the tenth for the tythe; but this is settled by a
prescription of so much a boat. The ferry or navigation
cross there is a freehold, paying a merk lord's rent, and is
the property of Mr Brathwaite of Harrow Slack. The
value of the fishing in the several Lakes are as follows, at
present:
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