button to main menu  Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 1787

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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:
Buttermere, -L.4 0 0 per annum
Cromack, -7 0 0
Lowswater, -0 15 0
Derwentwater, -1 1 0
Bassenthwaite, -1 0 0
Ulswater, -13 0 0
Thyrillmere, -0 0 0 or little.
Grassmere,
* This method had never any success in Ulswater in taking the Skellies, which assemble themselves in the like manner, and at the same season of the year; for they must be drawn on shore, or fall below the nets.
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