Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Charr

CHARR, the Red, or Case-charr, Salmo alpinus, or umbla minor, a species of fish but seldom found in British lakes, though abundantly in the colder ones of the Lapland Alps. It delights in clear and pure waters, and rarely wanders into running streams.

According to Mr. Pennant, the largest and most beautiful of these fish are caught in the lake of Windermere, Westmoreland. It spawns about Michaelmas, and chiefly in the river Brathay, which forms a confluence with another, called the Rowthay, when both disgorge themselves into the lake. The former has a black rocky bottom; but that of the latter, a bright sand, which is never visited by the charr. These fish are said to be in the highest perfection about May, and to continue so the whole summer, yet are seldom caught after April. In the spawning season, they will take bait, but at no other time, and are commonly caught in breast-nets, about twenty-four fathoms long, and five broad.—They are likewise taken, though in smaller quantities, in lakes or pools at the foot of Mount Snowden, in Wales, where this fish is called torgoch, and esteemed a greater delicacy than the trout.

The flesh of the charr is very red, and, when potted, delicious eating; hence, numbers of them are annually sent to London.