Lammermuir.
THE FISH CALLED "VENDACE."
(Vol. iii., p. 301.)
A short time since, an eminent naturalist directed my attention to Yarrell's History of British Fishes (2 vols. 8vo. 1836, and Supplement, 1839), with reference to this curious fish.
Mr. Yarrell does not attempt to identify the vendace with any foreign species, nor to answer the question, who introduced them in Lochmaben? However, his account of the other species of the genus Coregonus in Great Britain is well worth giving.
The species of the genus Coregonus are numerous in Europe, and several of them are so similar to each other that they are often confounded.
"Some writers have even considered the Vendisse of Lochmaben as the same with the Powan of [Loch Lomond] Perthshire, the Schelly of Cumberland, the Gwyniad of Wales, and the Pollan of Ireland. This is not the case, for the Pollan of Ireland is distinct from the two species of Coregonus found in Great Britain."
"The Gwyniad is very numerous in Ulswater and other large lakes of Cumberland, where on account of its large scales it is called the Schelly. The fish is not unlike a herring in appearance; the Welsh term Gwyniad has reference to their silvery white colour."
Izaak Walton notices it at the end of chap. xiii.:
"Nor would I have you ignorant of a rare fish called a Guiniad," &c.
The Pollan is principally found in Loch Neagh, also in Loch Derg and Loch Erne. Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, says: