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BIOLOGY LIBRARY 
 
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THE SPORTING FISH OF GREAT 
 BRITAIN 
 
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THE 
 
 SPORTING FISH OF 
 GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTES ON ICHTHYOLOGY 
 
 BY 
 
 H. CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL 
 
 LATE HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTOR OF SEA FISHERIES 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "Salmon and Trout" " Pike and other Coarse Fish," " The Modern 
 Practical Angler" " The Angler-Naturalist" " The Book 
 of the Pike," &>c. Editor of the late " Fisher- 
 man's Magazine and Review." 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY SIXTEEN LITHOGRAPHS OF 
 
 FISH IN GOLD, SILVER, AND 
 
 COLOURS. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET 
 
 1886 
 (All rights reserved?) 
 
633 
 
 BIOLOGY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Q 
 
 BIOLOGY LIBRARY 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS: c. WHITTINGHAM AND co., TOOKS COURT, 
 
 CHANCERY LANE. 
 

 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 HIS attempt to represent the principal 
 fresh- water fish of the British Islands, 
 at least approximately in their actual 
 forms and colours, may not, perhaps, be 
 unwelcome to lovers of Natural History. 
 
 The Chapter on the Outlines of Ichthyology 
 will, I hope, be useful to Anglers and students. 
 
 To the author of Yarrell's " British Fishes," as 
 also to Mr. J. Van Voorst, the publisher of that 
 excellent and exhaustive treatise, I gladly take 
 this opportunity of acknowledging my many 
 obligations. 
 
 H. C.-P. 
 
 899577 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 HE SALMON i 
 
 THE BULL TROUT 32 
 
 THE SEA TROUT (OR SALMON-TROUT) . . 37 
 
 THE COMMON TROUT 47 
 
 THE GREAT LAKE TROUT 58 
 
 THE GRAYLING 62 
 
 THE PIKE 69 
 
 THE PERCH 86 
 
 THE CARP 94 
 
 THE TENCH . 108 
 
 THE BARBEL 116 
 
 THE BREAM 122 
 
 THE ROACH 128 
 
 THE DACE AND THE CHUB 138 
 
 THE BLEAK 144 
 
 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY 147-185 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS OF FISH. 
 
 HE SALMON- i 
 
 THE BULL TROUT 32 
 
 THE SEA TROUT 37 
 
 THE COMMON TROUT 47 
 
 THE LOCH LEVEN TROUT 52 
 
 THE GREAT LAKE TROUT . , 58 
 
 THE GRAYLING 62 
 
 THE PIKE , 69 
 
 THE PERCH 86 
 
 THE CARP 94 
 
 THE TENCH 108 
 
 THE BARBEL .116 
 
 THE BREAM 122 
 
 THE ROACH 128 
 
 THE RUDD 132 
 
 THE DACE . . 138 
 
 THE CHUB 140 
 
 THE BLEAK 144 
 
THE SALMON. 1 
 
 NTIL within the last fifty years very 
 little was known of the natural history 
 of the Salmon, the united lore of those 
 most interested in the fisheries amount- 
 ing to little beyond the fact that the fish ascended 
 the rivers to spawn during the spring and summer 
 spawned and descended again to the sea within 
 the following two or three months. 
 
 Since the period referred to, however, and espe- 
 cially during the last two or three decades, the 
 researches of ichthyologists and the experiments 
 which have been conducted on a large scale by 
 enterprising and scientific men have thrown a 
 flood of light upon the subject, converting doubts 
 into certainties, theories into practice, and gene- 
 rally advancing our knowledge of the subject to a 
 point which has already produced practical results 
 of great importance in the re-stocking of our ex- 
 
 1 Salmo salar. Salmo, Lat. for a salmon ; salar, from the 
 Latin salarhis, of salt. 
 
 B 
 
 
2 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 hausted salmon rivers, and the increase of a 
 valuable article of the national food-supply. 
 
 I may perhaps be permitted to refer with some 
 
 satisfaction to my own small share in bringing 
 
 about the legislative reforms to which the present 
 
 material prosperity of our fisheries is of course 
 
 c Ct cp|ri c mkf fly ^attributable. It is now some years, since, 
 
 s\ i^\an\ irti-cKe on this subject in the Saturday Review, 
 
 c it was stated, " Mr. Pennell, Mr. Buckland, and a 
 
 few others, have worked hard in the cause of the 
 
 Salmon, in spite of territorial apathy, and if we are 
 
 ever again to have this fish as plentiful as it was 
 
 in the days of the mythical apprentices, it will be 
 
 mainly owing to their exertions." 
 
 The following sketch, which I originally pub- 
 lished in the Times, gives in a summarised form the 
 history of the Salmon as it was then known. It 
 cannot, I think, be said that subsequent experi- 
 ments and investigations have in any material 
 " point added to or taken from it. 
 
 PROVED FACTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 
 
 1. Salmon and Grilse invariably spawn in fresh 
 water if possible, both the eggs, and the young 
 fry whilst in the Parr state, being destroyed by 
 contact with salt water. 
 
 2. The eggs are usually deposited on gravelly 
 shallows, where they hatch in from 80 to 1 40 days, 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 3 
 
 according to the temperature of the water. Eggs 
 remaining unhatched beyond the latter period will 
 seldom hatch at all, possibly from having been 
 destroyed by the low temperature. 
 
 3. The eggs deposited by the female will not 
 hatch under any circumstances unless vivified, 
 after exclusion, by the milt of the male ; and at 
 least up to the period of migration there is no 
 difference whatever in fry bred between Salmon 
 only, between Grilse only, between Salmon and 
 Grilse, between Salmon and Parr, or between 
 Grilse and Parr. 1 The female Parr cannot spawn ; 
 but the male Parr possesses, and constantly exer- 
 cises, the power of vivifying Salmon and Grilse 
 eggs. 
 
 [Note \ This is to be understood as referring to the specific 
 characteristics of any of the Salmon thus bred. It seems 
 very probable that there may be in fry variations of size or 
 development depending on their parentage or generation, 
 as there are also known to be differences in the size of the 
 eggs of different breeding fish dependent upon the size and 
 age of the latter.] 
 
 4. The fry remain one, two, and, in some cases, 
 three years in the rivers as Parr before going down 
 to the sea, about half taking their departure at 
 one year, nearly all the others at two years, and 
 the remainder (which are exceptional) at three 
 years old. 
 
 5. All young Salmon-fry are marked with bluish 
 
4 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 bars on their sides until shortly before their migra- 
 tion, up to which period they are Parrs ; they then 
 invariably assume a more or less complete coating 
 of silvery scales and become S molts, the bars, or 
 Parr-marks, however, being still clearly discernible 
 on rubbing off the new scales. 
 
 6. The young of all the species here included in 
 the genus Salmo have at some period of their ex- 
 istence these bluish bars ; and consequently such 
 marks are not by themselves proofs that fry bearing 
 them are the young of the true Salmon (Salmo 
 salar). 
 
 7. Unless the young fish put on their Smolt 
 dress in May or early in June, and thereupon go 
 down to the sea, they remain as Parrs another 
 year ; and without Smolt scales they will not 
 migrate, and cannot exist in salt water. 
 
 8. The length of the Parr at six weeks old is 
 about an inch and a half or two inches ; and the 
 weight of the Smolt before reaching the tidal wave 
 from one to two ounces. 
 
 9. In at least many cases, Smolts thus migrating 
 to the sea in May and June return as Grilse, some- 
 times within five, generally within ten weeks, the 
 increase in weight during that period varying from 
 2 to 10 Ibs., the average being from 4 to 6 Ibs. ; 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 5 
 
 and these Grilse spawn about November or De- 
 cember go back to the sea and (in many 
 cases) re-ascend the rivers the next spring as 
 Salmon, with a further increase of 4 to 12 Ibs. 
 Thus, a fish hatched in April, 1854, and marked 
 when migrating in May, 1855, was caught as a 
 Salmon of 22 Ibs. weight in March, 1856. 
 
 10. It appears certain, however, that Smolts do 
 not always return during the same year as Grilse, 
 but frequently remain nine or ten months in the 
 sea, returning in the following spring as small-sized 
 Salmon. 
 
 \_Nofe. It will thus be seen that the fry of the Salmon are 
 called PdrrS) or Parr, until they put on their migratory 
 dress, when they become Smolts and go down to the salt 
 water; Grilse if they return during the first year of their 
 migration ; and at all other periods Salmon.} 
 
 11. It has also been clearly proved that, in ge- 
 neral, Salmon and Grilse find their way back to 
 spawn to the rivers in which they were bred some- 
 times to the identical spots, spawn about Novem- 
 ber or December,- -and go down again to the sea 
 as " spent fish," or " Kelts," in February or March, 
 
 returning, in at least many cases, during the 
 following four or five months as ' clean fish," and 
 with an increase in weight of 7 to lolbs. 1 
 
 1 Shortly before spawning, and whilst returning to the sea as 
 Kelts, or spent fish, Salmon are unfit for food, and their capture 
 
6 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 This, in a condensed form, is at the present time 
 as it was when first published a fair statement 
 of our positive knowledge as regards the leading 
 facts in the history of the Salmon ; and it may be 
 doubted if any subsequent discoveries however 
 they may add to or amplify will be found to mate- 
 rially modify them. In " Fact, No. 10" will be found 
 the first statement of the now very generally ad- 
 mitted theory of a double or divided migration. 
 
 The several species belonging to the genus 
 Salmo, and properly coming within the scope of 
 these pages as British Sporting Fish, may be 
 broadly divided into three groups : 
 
 1. The Silver, or Migratory species (i.e. those 
 migrating to or from the sea) ; 
 
 2. The Yellow, or Non-migratory species; and, 
 
 3. The Charrs, or Orange- and Red-coloured 
 species ; 
 
 the general colouring of the first being always 
 more or less greyish-silver, that of the second 
 golden or yellow, and that of the third, espe- 
 
 is then illegal. " Foul fish " before spawning are, if males, 
 termed Red fish, from the orange-coloured stripes with which 
 their cheeks are marked, and the golden-orange tint of the 
 body ; the females are darker in colour, and are called Black 
 fish. After spawning the males are called Kippers, and the 
 females Shedders or Baggits. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 7 
 
 cially on the under part of the body, crimson 
 and orange of various degrees of brilliancy. The 
 species of the Silver, or Migratory group, are 
 three in number ; which include, according to the 
 opinions of ichthyologists, the whole of our migra- 
 tory SalmonicUz, under whatever local names they 
 may occur : 
 
 The true Salmon (Parr, Smolt, Grilse) Salmo 
 salar ; 
 
 The Bull-Trout, also called Grey Trout, 
 Sewin, and Roundtail Salmo eriox ; and 
 
 The Sea-Trout or Salmon-Trout (sometimes 
 also called White Trout) -Salmo trutta. 
 
 In the few further observations which limits of 
 space permit of my offering on the general history 
 of the true Salmon (Salmo salar}, I shall adopt the 
 sequence suggested by its natural habits, as likely 
 to be that most easily followed and most conve- 
 nient for reference. Thus, commencing with the 
 ascent of the fish in the early spring and summer, 
 its course will be briefly sketched from the tidal 
 wave up the river to the spawning-ground, and 
 back again to the sea, the gradual changes of 
 colour and condition being at the same time 
 pointed .out. Returning then to the spawning- 
 beds, where the ova should be approaching the 
 
THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 time of hatching, the growth and habits of the 
 young fry will be traced from the egg until their 
 migration to the salt water as S molts ; their sub- 
 sequent return as Grilse ; and, finally, as Salmon. 
 
 ASCENT OF SALMON FROM THE SEA : FRESH-RUN 
 
 FISH. 
 
 Sooner or later during the spring and summer 
 months a proportion at least of the Salmon in the 
 bays and estuaries of the coast make their way up 
 the rivers for the purpose of spawning their ge- 
 neral colouring at this period being a brilliant sil- 
 very white, merging into a bluish black with a few 
 dark spots on the upper part of the body and head. 
 When first ascending from the sea, Salmon are 
 termed " fresh-run" fish, and are then in the most 
 perfect condition both for the rod and the table. 
 
 The marks by which a fresh-run fish may be 
 known are, the bright, silvery hue of the belly and 
 sides, and the comparatively loose adherence of 
 the scales this more particularly in the Grilse. 
 In the case also of Salmon just fresh from the sea, 
 a species of parasite, called " tide-lice," may be fre- 
 quently found attached to the fish. These, how- 
 ever, are killed by a few hours' contact with fresh 
 water. 
 
 In some rivers the ascent and spawning-time of 
 the Salmon are much earlier than in others. This 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 9 
 
 is often the case in rivers issuing from large lakes, 
 in which the water has previously undergone a sort 
 of filtering process and has become warmer, owing 
 to the greater mass and higher temperature of its 
 source ; whilst, on the other hand, streams which 
 are liable to be swollen by the melting of snows, 
 or cold rains, or which are otherwise bleak and ex- 
 posed, are later in season, and yield their principal 
 supply when the great lake rivers are beginning to 
 fail. 
 
 The order in which fish ascend rivers is allow- 
 ing for the variations already pointed out gene- 
 rally somewhat as follows : 
 
 First come the strong, early runners. These are 
 succeeded by the Grilse, and by the small " Spring 
 Salmon " which have probably never ascended at 
 all as Grilse, but have remained in the sea since 
 the Smolt state a period of from eight to ten 
 months, as noticed in " Proved Facts," No. 10. 
 The scales of these spring Salmon are not easily 
 rubbed off like those of the Grilse, and their tails 
 are not so forked. A few of them generally appear 
 with the early-running fish. As the season ad- 
 vances, the larger fish and those heavy with spawn 
 begin to work their way upwards from the mouths 
 of the rivers and estuaries towards the higher 
 reaches ; and such fish continue ascending from the 
 sea until the close of the autumn, or, if the river be 
 an early one, of the summer. 
 
 Even as late as November and December, and 
 
io THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 the January and February following, a few fish 
 continue to run which have been usually considered 
 as " barren "- without capability of spawning ; but 
 this notion was proved by the late Mr. Ffennell l to 
 be erroneous, as upon dissection he found that the 
 females had ova in them perfectly developed, 
 although not larger than mustard-seed, whilst in 
 the males a thin thread of milt was always dis- 
 cernible. These fish, of which many ascend the 
 Tay in November and the three following months, 
 remain nearly a year in the fresh waters .before 
 spawning, and although their colours gradually be- 
 come darker in consequence, they are to all intents 
 and purposes " clean fish " a term used to express 
 the antithesis to "foul fish "-and are exceedingly 
 good eating. 
 
 The appearance of these so-called barren Sal- 
 mon at a time when most fish are spawning, or are 
 just recovering from the process, illustrates what I 
 believe to be the- most important fact connected 
 with the history of the Salmon, and one which 
 until the publication of " Proved Facts," and my 
 subsequent notes in the " Angler- Naturalist" in 
 1863 does not appear to have been at all under- 
 stood, although following as a natural corollary to 
 the propositions of Mr. Ffennell, and hinted at by 
 Mr. Brown in his account of the Stormontfield 
 experiments, viz., that the principle of a divided 
 
 1 See Appendix to Report of Commission of House of 
 Lords on the Salmon Fisheries. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. n 
 
 migration is not confined to the Parrs on going to 
 the sea, or to the Smolts on their return from it, 
 some as Grilse and some as spring Salmon, but 
 that it also extends to the old and adult Jish after 
 spawning one portion of these latter coming back 
 into the rivers during the following summer, and 
 the rest not until the spring succeeding it ; in other 
 words (and this is the gist of the whole), that at 
 least a proportion of Salmon spawn only on every 
 alternate year. 
 
 An analogous fact was observed by Dr. Davy 
 with regard to the spawning of the common Trout. 
 Dr. Davy was in the habit of opening the fish he 
 caught, and by this means he discovered that, as 
 the spawning-season approached, only about one 
 half of the females had visible eggs, whilst in the 
 other half there were no signs of the development of 
 the ova. Charr, also, are frequently taken in Win- 
 dermere in high condition in October and Novem- 
 ber, which is their regular spawning-season, a 
 fact which would seem to point to the possibility 
 of the rule of alternate spawning-years holding 
 good in the case of all fish here included under the 
 genus Salmo. 
 
 The design of this law or instinct which, when 
 once apprehended, will be found to explain many 
 of the perplexities in the history of the Salmon 
 is intelligible enough, viz., to ensure as large a 
 supply of clean fish throughout as large a portion 
 of the year as possible, and to enable each river to 
 
12 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 support the greatest stock, a result which could 
 only be obtained by such a provision as the above. 
 It is also doubtless intended to ensure an equal dis- 
 tribution of the fish throughout the whole length of 
 the river. These Salmon, by ascending thus early, 
 before their spawn is at all matured, are vigorous, 
 and able to overcome the obstacles in their up- 
 ward course to the extreme sources of the river 
 to which those fish which remain in the sea until 
 heavy with spawn could never penetrate. But to 
 return. 
 
 During the early part of the season, the Salmon 
 in the rivers, which do not at once ascend, remain 
 in or near the mouths, most commonly advancing 
 with the flood, and retiring with the ebb of the 
 tide unless captured by any of the contrivances 
 hereafter mentioned ; but as the season pro- 
 gresses they get gradually further into the fresh 
 water beyond the influence of the sea, and at 
 about this time will be found to be becoming 
 full of roe, and more or less out of condition 
 and unfit for food, according to their forward 
 state as breeding-fish. In fact, the edible qualities 
 of the Salmon when ascending rivers depend en- 
 tirely upon the state of the development of the 
 milt or roe. Even in the salt water this loss of 
 condition follows upon the maturing of the spawn ; 
 and when fish are precluded from entering rivers 
 by want of a rise in the tide, or other cause, the 
 development takes place as in the stream, and the 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 13 
 
 Salmon assume the reddish-coloured tints distinc- 
 tive of spawning-fish. 
 
 With the approach of the spawning-time, the 
 anxiety of the Salmon to ascend increases. They 
 shoot up rapids with the velocity of arrows, and 
 make wonderful efforts to surmount cascades and 
 other impediments, frequently clearing a height of 
 two or three yards at a bound. It has been calcu- 
 lated though I do not vouch for the accuracy of 
 the calculation that, when swimming, or rather 
 darting at full speed, the Salmon will glide through 
 the water at the rate of about 1,500 feet per 
 minute, or 2,160,000 feet (upwards of 400 miles) 
 per day a pace which, if it could be maintained, 
 would speedily carry the fish round the world. 
 Marvellous stories are related of Salmon-jumps, 
 some altogether incredible, others, to say the least 
 of it, highly improbable. No doubt the depth of the 
 water from which they take their spring materially 
 influences its height ; but, as a general rule, the 
 limit of the perpendicular leap certainly does not 
 exceed 12 or 14 feet; or, if they rise higher than 
 that, the effort is aimless, and they are dashed down 
 again by the current before they have recovered 
 their energy. Frequently they are killed by the 
 exhaustive violence of their exertions, and some- 
 times they alight upon the rocks and are captured. 
 
 With the advance of the season the fish begin to 
 gain the upper and shallower reaches, or spawning- 
 grounds ; and at this time all the Salmon and 
 
i 4 THE SPORTING PISH 
 
 Trout species resident in fresh water, both migra- 
 tory and non-migratory, acquire, in lieu of their 
 brilliant spring tints, a dusky-yellowish exterior, 
 accompanied by a considerable increase of mucus 
 or slime, the fins also becoming more muscular. 
 As the important operation approaches, these 
 colours undergo a still further deterioration, the 
 general hue of the body in the males assuming a 
 browner or more golden tinge, and the cheeks 
 being marked with orange-coloured stripes ; the 
 lower jaw elongates, and a gristly projection or 
 horn turns upwards from the point, which is used 
 by the Salmon as an organ of offence in its con- 
 tests with other fish. In this state the males are 
 called " Red fish," or are said to be " on the reds." 
 The females are somewhat darker in colour, and 
 are known by the name of " Black fish." 
 
 THE SPAWNING-BEDS. 
 
 The usual time for spawning is from November 
 until the latter end of January or the beginning of 
 February ; but there are exceptional rivers both 
 earlier and later, as already pointed out ; and it is 
 probable that many of the so-called " barren fish," 
 entering the fresh water in November and Decem- 
 ber, spawn in the succeeding October. 
 
 The process of spawning is as follows : A pair 
 of fish, male and female, select a gravelly shallow 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 15 
 
 suitable for the purpose, which is generally occu- 
 pied also by other spawners, both Salmon and 
 Trout, as well as by a considerable number of 
 male Parrs. These latter, as stated in " Proved 
 Facts," No. 3, are perfectly qualified to con- 
 tinue their species, and they perform a most 
 important part in the reproductive process ; for 
 the attentions of the male Salmon being con- 
 stantly distracted by the necessity of protecting 
 the spawning-bed from the intrusion of other fish, 
 the ova of the female are during these absences 
 vivified by the milt of the Parrs. 1 The female 
 deposits her eggs in shallow furrows in the gravel, 
 to which they adhere by a thin coating of gluti- 
 nous matter, the male at the same time shedding 
 his milt over them. Whether these furrows are 
 made conjointly by both spawners, or by the female 
 fish only, and whether the snout or the tail is the 
 organ used in the delving process, have been dis- 
 puted points amongst naturalists. From the con- 
 current testimony, however, of those who have had 
 the best opportunities of observation, it now ap- 
 pears certain that the trenches are made by the 
 tail of the female fish only, and that the male takes 
 
 1 According to the experiments of Mr. John Shaw (subse- 
 quently confirmed by those at Stormontfield), male Parrs attain 
 to the breeding-state in about eighteen months from the time 
 of hatching. The females, it would appear, never become pro- 
 lific whilst in the Parr state unless they are amongst the excep- 
 tional fish, alluded to in " Proved Eacts," No. 4, which remain 
 over the third year in the rivers before migrating. 
 
1 6 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 no share whatever in the more laborious portions 
 of the parental duties. 
 
 The only extra-matrimonial function that he 
 performs consists in exerting an unwearied vigi- 
 lance to protect his seraglio from the invasions of 
 rival males, all of whom he assiduously endeavours 
 to expel, living, in fact, in a perpetual state of 
 active hostilities. The female, regardless of the 
 frequent absences of her lord during these contests, 
 and probably satisfied with the presence of the 
 male Parrs, proceeds with her operations by throw- 
 ing herself, at intervals of a few minutes, upon her 
 side, and whilst in that position, by a rapid action 
 of the tail, she digs a receptacle for her eggs, a 
 portion of which she on each occasion deposits, 
 and, again turning on her side, covers it up by a 
 renewed action of the tail ; thus alternately dig- 
 ging, depositing, and covering ova until the whole 
 are laid, a process usually occupying a period esti- 
 mated by different authorities at from three or four 
 to twelve days. 
 
 In the case of the male fish being captured or 
 killed, the female retires to the nearest large pool 
 in search of a fresh mate, with whom she returns 
 and completes the process of depositing her eggs. 
 This she will repeat several times if her partner be 
 removed ; and it is mentioned as a fact by Mr. 
 Young that nine male Salmon in succession have 
 been thus killed from the side of a single female, 
 who then brought back with her, as companion, a 
 
OF- GREA T BRITAIN. 1 7 
 
 large yellow Trout I In consequence, we may sup- 
 pose, of the arduous nature of his military duties 
 and reddish colour at this period, the term " old 
 soldier" is frequently used to designate the male 
 Salmon after spawning. 
 
 RETURN OF SALMON TO THE SEA AS " SPENT 
 FISH " AFTER SPAWNING. 
 
 After spawning, the adult fish are for some time 
 in a very weak and exhausted state, and have not 
 energy sufficient immediately to return to the sea. 
 They usually drop down from the spawning- 
 grounds, or " redds," to the first quiet deep, where 
 they remain until their strength is somewhat re- 
 cruited. They then continue falling back with the 
 winter and spring floods, descending from pool to 
 pool, and avoiding as much as possible weirs and 
 rapid currents, until they reach the sea, where they 
 quickly recover their condition, to ascend again 
 (at least in many cases) in the autumn or succeed- 
 ing spring for the same purpose as before, always 
 remaining, however, for a considerable period in 
 the brackish water or tideway before making either 
 decided change. 
 
 After the conclusion of the spawning-process, 
 Salmon are called " spent " or unclean fish, or 
 " Kelts;" and at this time they are quite unfit for 
 food indeed almost poisonous and their capture 
 is prohibited by law. Lately-spawned Kelts may 
 
1 8 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 be recognized by their dark unhealthy colour, 
 lanky, flaccid appearance, and by the enlargement 
 of the vent. Their gills also are almost invariably 
 found to be infested by a species of white worm 
 (the Lerncea Salmonis of Linnaeus), which adheres 
 firmly to the inside of the gill covers, and from 
 which they are released by contact with the salt 
 water, a similar release from other parasites 
 being obtained on passing to the fresh water 
 from the sea. 
 
 Within a period of five or six months after their 
 return to the salt water, it has been proved that 
 at least a proportion of Kelts find their way back 
 to the upper reaches of the river as clean fish, 
 having gained in weight during that time from 7 
 to lolbs. 
 
 That spawned fish improve greatly in condition 
 before they leave the fresh water there is no room 
 to doubt, although they are never really fit for the 
 table until their return from their sea-trip. A fish 
 of this kind is known as a " well-mended Kelt," 
 a term which is common amongst fishermen. 
 
 HATCHING OF THE EGGS AND GROWTH OF THE 
 YOUNG FRY. 
 
 Leaving now the exhausted and more .or less ill- 
 conditioned Kelts to recruit themselves in their 
 salt-water bath, we return to the spawning-bed 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 19 
 
 where the eggs are approaching the time of 
 hatching. 
 
 Into this bed, during the preceding three months, 
 a dozen females have each poured the germs of, 
 say, from seventeen to twenty thousand Salmon, 
 which, if they all arrived at maturity, would repre- 
 sent in approximate figures some three million five 
 hundred thousand pounds' weight of wholesome 
 food, or a money-value of about ,160,000. Un- 
 fortunately, however, the fry in fact added to the 
 stock of the river are a mere fraction, and those 
 that survive to return as Grilse a very trifling frac- 
 tion of these numbers. The latter have been cal- 
 culated by Mr. Brown at about one in every 1,000, 
 and by Messrs. Ffennell and Ashworth at one in 
 every six thousand, of the original deposit of ova. 
 
 The causes of this destruction are numerous. 
 From the first laying of the egg until the plunge of 
 the young Smolt into the tidal wave, and even after- 
 wards in the broader waters of the estuary or open 
 sea, a hundred wholesale depredators lie in wait 
 for it. First there are the shoals of hungry fish 
 of all kinds which prowl about the fords, pressing 
 close behind the spawner, and ready to fight for 
 the possession of her eggs almost before they are 
 laid ; then come the voracious larvse of the May- 
 fly and Stone-fly, and a host of kindred insects, 
 which work their way in amongst the gravel and 
 destroy, perhaps less ostentatiously, but not less 
 certainly. 
 
20 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 If the egg escapes these perils, and having per- 
 formed its protective mission releases its charge in 
 due course, fresh dangers await the delicate and 
 immature nursling. Again, the trout and the wild- 
 duck, and even the parent salmon themselves, hunt 
 it out in its sheltering creeks and crevices ; and 
 hundreds of fry are daily sacrificed on a single 
 spawning-bed by this means. Last of all comes 
 man, who wantonly, either for amusement or for 
 the sake of a single dish, fills his basket with pro- 
 duce which, if allowed to pass to the sea, would 
 have returned in a few weeks worth a pocketful of 
 gold. With these various enemies besetting every 
 period of their existence, it ceases to be a matter 
 of surprise that the percentage of fry attaining the 
 Grilse state should be as trifling as it is ; the only 
 wonder is that it is not still smaller. 
 
 Many causes of destruction, however, menace 
 the ova of the Salmon besides those enumerated : 
 a winter flood perhaps sweeps down the river, and 
 buries a whole brood under a foot of sand-drift ; 
 not only the duck and the grebe, but all sorts of 
 water-fowl and amphibia perform their share of 
 the work of depredation ; and though we know but 
 little of the habits of the Smolts when once in the 
 salt water, it may be conjectured that their adver- 
 saries here are not less active and numerous than 
 those of the river. 
 
 To revert to the spawning-beds. 
 
 In from 40 to 60 days after being first deposited 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 21 
 
 in the spawning-bed, the egg begins to show faint 
 signs of animation, and the eye of the embryo fish 
 appears, a scarcely perceptible black speck, gra- 
 dually increasing in size until the time of hatching 
 an event which usually occurs in from 90 to 1 40 
 days, according to the temperature of the water 
 and forwardness of the spring. 
 
 The actual bursting of the young Salmon from 
 the egg is most interesting. The operation, which 
 I have frequently watched, takes place thus : 
 The fish lies in the shell coiled round in the form 
 of a hoop, and the greatest strain being at the back, 
 this is, of course, the first part to be freed. At 
 this point the shell splits across, and, after a few 
 struggles, is completely thrown off with a jerk- 
 leaving the umbilical sac or " yolk-bag," containing 
 the red yolk of the egg, by which the fish is 
 nourished during the first five or six weeks of its 
 existence, suspended under the stomach. At this 
 " bag-stage" of its development, the half-formed 
 fry is exceedingly delicate, the displacement of a 
 stone, or the slightest bruise or injury, proving 
 instantly fatal. Its appearance is also very curious. 
 The future monarch of the stream is represented 
 by a mere ragged line, fringed at the edges and 
 almost transparent, the head and eyes being pro- 
 minent and altogether out of proportion to the 
 body, which measures only about five-eighths of 
 an inch in length, and is of a pale peach-blossom 
 or azure tint. 
 
22 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 In about thirty-five or forty days from the time 
 of hatching, the yolk-bag disappears, and the fry 
 becomes a perfect little fish of about an inch long, 
 with the fins separated and properly developed, 
 and the tail deeply forked at the end. The general 
 colour now also changes to a light brown ; and the 
 sides are indistinctly crossed by nine or ten trans- 
 verse dusky bars, or Parr-marks, characteristic of 
 all the species of the genus Salmo when in an im- 
 mature state, and which in the true Salmon remain 
 more or less visible even in a Smolt or Parr six 
 inches long. If the scales are removed, the marks 
 are much more obvious. The differences in ap- 
 pearance, in fact, between the fry of the Salmon, 
 Bull-Trout, and Sea-Trout, and probably also be- 
 tween the fry of the other species of the same 
 genus, are so trifling as to be scarcely perceptible 
 unless upon very close examination, and are, more- 
 over, liable to constant variations with local cir- 
 cumstances. According, however, to Sir William 
 Jardine, the fry of the common Trout (Salmo far io) 
 may always be distinguished from that of either 
 of the three migratory species by its having the 
 extremity of the second dorsal, or adipose, fin 
 fringed with orange. 
 
 Up to the period of their first assuming the 
 Parr-marks the Salmon-fry are unable to move 
 about much, owing to the presence of the vitelline, 
 or yolk-bag, which impedes their motions in swim- 
 ming, and obliges them when at rest to lie perpe- 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 23 
 
 tually on their backs, unless artificially supported. 
 This support they seek to obtain by placing them- 
 selves amongst gravel or in crevices between 
 stones, exhibiting generally a great desire to escape 
 observation an instinct given to them no doubt 
 for their preservation during so feeble and helpless 
 a condition. On the disappearance, however, of 
 the yolk-bag they come from their hiding-places, 
 and are to be found, on careful search, in the 
 gentler eddies and small back-waters of the streams 
 in or near which the old Salmon had deposited 
 their spawn during the preceding winter. 
 
 At two months old the Parr begins to acquire a 
 more symmetrical form, and the disproportion in 
 the size of the head ceases to be observable ; at 
 four months the characteristic Parr-marks are 
 clearly defined, and at six months the fry has 
 reached the length of from three to four inches, 
 and is the small-sized Parr so constantly found in 
 salmon-rivers. Extraordinary variations, however, 
 are discovered in the growth-rate of fish of similar 
 ages and even belonging to the same brood a fact 
 not hitherto entirely satisfactorily explained ; and, 
 within certain limits, the fish of different rivers 
 also vary in this manner not only in size, but often 
 in shape and colour, as much as do the qualities of 
 the streams themselves. 
 
24 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 CHANGE OF PARR INTO SMOLTS, AND FIRST 
 MIGRATION TO THE SEA. 
 
 In somewhat more than twelve months from 
 the time of hatching that is, between the middle 
 of April and the early part of June about half of 
 the last year's Parr begin to assume the silver 
 coating of scales preparatory to making their first 
 trip to the sea as Smolts. These silvery scales, 
 which form the distinctive mark of the Smolt as 
 distinguished from the Parr, are never put on ex- 
 cept when the fish is about to migrate ; and with- 
 out them it will not migrate at all, and cannot exist 
 in salt water, as has been proved by experiment. 
 The change commences by the tail, pectoral, and 
 back-fins acquiring a dusky margin, the whole 
 body of the fish at the same time exhibiting 
 symptoms of a silvery exterior, with increased 
 elegance of form. 
 
 When confined in ponds, the habits also of the 
 transforming fish undergo a marked alteration. 
 As Parr they show no disposition to congregate, 
 each occupying its own place, and any intruder 
 upon a post already tenanted being instantly and 
 forcibly expelled ; but as soon as the whole brood 
 have completed their travelling costume an ope- 
 ration usually lasting two or three weeks they 
 collect in a shoal, and show their desire to escape 
 by scouring over the ponds, leaping and sporting, 
 and generally displaying a greatly increased 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 25 
 
 amount of energy and activity. When their 
 passage to the sea has been barred too long, 
 Parrs in this state have been known to leap some 
 distance on to the shore or barrier, and thus kill 
 themselves. 
 
 It has been clearly demonstrated .by the pro- 
 ceedings at Stormontfield that about one half the 
 young fry migrate when about a year old almost 
 all the other half at their second year and the 
 few remaining at their third year ; but the period 
 of the descent is very generally the same in either 
 case, and in all rivers whether early or late, begin- 
 ning in March and continuing through April, 
 May, and the early part of June only a few fish 
 continuing to migrate during the subsequent 
 months. The length of the Smolt when migrating 
 varies from 3^ to 7 or 8 inches, according to age 
 and other circumstances. Its full colours are, 
 dark blue or bluish green on the upper half of the 
 body and head, with black or carmine-coloured 
 spots ; gill-covers and lower half of body silvery ; 
 and all the fins much darker than those of the 
 Parr. The silver scales come off upon slight 
 pressure, and the Parr-marks are visible below. 
 
 When ready to make their trial trip, the Smolts 
 assemble in sculls of from forty to seventy to- 
 gether, passing down the river at the rate of about 
 two miles an hour, according to some authors, in 
 family groups. Thus resting in the slack waters, 
 and at intervals braving the rapids and strong 
 
26 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 currents, they drop gradually down the river, 
 unless on the occurrence of a heavy flood, which 
 sweeps them at once into the sea. On meeting 
 with the tide they remain for two or three days in 
 the brackish water to fit them for their change of 
 habits, and then go off to the sea altogether. 
 
 What becomes of the young fish after reaching 
 the ocean is at present a matter of conjecture. 
 What we do know positively is, that in from six to 
 eight weeks 'a number return to the same river 
 with an increase in weight of 2 to 5 Ibs., and 
 that many of the fry marked when migrating as 
 S molts in May and June, were sold in the London 
 markets as Grilse in July, August, and September. 
 It is a fair point for conjecture, and would be an 
 interesting subject for future experiment, whether 
 the Grilse returning the same season may not 
 consist principally of the two-year-old Smolts, and 
 so on ; or whether, should this prove not to be the 
 case, these older Smolts may not represent the 
 larger-sized Grilse, and the younger fish the smaller 
 ones. 
 
 Of the habits and food of the Salmon in its 
 various stages whilst in the sea we know little. 
 In his evidence before the Select Committee of 
 the House of Lords in 1860, Professor Quekett 
 stated it as his opinion that Salmon travelled some 
 distance along the coasts, and probably into deep 
 water, in search of the ova of the Echinus or Sea 
 Urchin a species commonly inhabiting a depth 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 27 
 
 of not less than from 6 to 20 fathoms. Professor 
 Huxley disagreed with this view as regards the 
 nature of the food, and believed that it consisted 
 chiefly of a numerous class of small creatures (Ento- 
 mostracous Crustacea) found in semi-solid masses 
 upon the surface frequently of deep water in fact, 
 that the Salmon swims in a species of animal-soup, 
 in which it has merely to open its mouth and swal- 
 low what enters it. Dr. Knox was of opinion that 
 the food consisted of the ova of various kinds of 
 Echinodermata (Star-fish, Sea Urchins, Encrinites, 
 &c.) and some of the Crustacea (Crab and Lobster 
 family). Faber, in his " Natural History of the 
 Fish of Ireland," says, "The common Salmon 
 feeds on small fishes and various small marine 
 animals." Dr. Fleming and several other natu- 
 ralists have observed upon their partiality for the 
 Sand-eel or Sand-launce a fact which is con- 
 firmed by Sir John Richardson, who states that 
 he has himself taken this fish from their stomach. 
 Sir William Jardine also says that in the north of 
 Sutherland a mode of Salmon-fishing is success- 
 fully practised in the firths with Sand-eels attached 
 to a buoy or bladder, and allowed to float with the 
 tide up the narrow estuaries. The worm, the 
 Minnow, and Parr- tail are all, under certain cir- 
 cumstances, known to be deadly baits for the 
 Salmon ; and in an essay published in the " Trans- 
 actions of the Highland Society," vol. ii. p. 392, 
 Mr. Alex. Morrison says, " I have taken Salmon 
 
28 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 within flood-mark, some of which had two, and 
 others three full-sized herrings in their stomachs." 
 
 Judging from the perfect arrangement of its 
 teeth and the known habits of its allied species, 
 there can be no doubt that the Salmon is a 
 voracious feeder, although the very small amount 
 of food usually found in the stomach has been 
 hitherto a source of difficulty in ascertaining its 
 exact nature. The singularity of this latter cir- 
 cumstance was formerly the subject of an interest- 
 ing correspondence in the " Field," in which it was 
 suggested, amongst other less possible explana- 
 tions, that the gastric juice of the fish was so 
 powerful as to dissolve almost instantaneously what- 
 ever was subjected to its action, another hypo- 
 thesis (and the more probable) being that the fish 
 ejects its food on finding itself hooked or netted. 
 
 Be this as it may, one point seems certain, viz., 
 that such a marvellously rapid growth as that 
 shown to take place in the Salmon can only be 
 produced by a corresponding supply of nutritious 
 food ; and as regards the travelling or otherwise 
 of the fish in the sea, the thousands of Salmon 
 constantly taken in nets along all parts of our 
 coasts are a clear proof that they do rove, at least 
 to considerable distances, from their native rivers 
 and estuaries. 
 
 During their sojourn in the sea after their first 
 spawning the growth of the Grilse is exceedingly 
 rapid, a considerable proportion at least of such 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 29 
 
 fish returning to the river in the summer and 
 autumn with an increase in weight of 5 to 9 
 Ibs. In twelve Grilse of 4 Ibs. each which were 
 carefully marked by Mr. Young when descending 
 to the salt water, this was found to be the average 
 increase on their return during the same season. 
 
 Whether the growth-rate is as rapid in the 
 after-stages of their existence we have no accurate 
 means at present of judging ; but reasoning from 
 analogy it would appear probable that it decreases 
 somewhat with the advancing age of the fish, and 
 in very old specimens is perhaps comparatively 
 trifling. Of such Salmon, the largest recorded to 
 have been captured in British waters was a female 
 fish of the weight of 83 Ibs., which was exposed 
 for sale in the shop of a London tradesman in the 
 year 1821. Another of 74 Ibs. is alluded to by 
 Pennant ; and Mr. T. Grove, the well-known 
 fishmonger, of Parliament Street, informs me that 
 he has had Salmon in his possession weighing 
 upwards of 60 Ibs. 
 
 Some very large Salmon have been occasionally 
 caught with the rod. One is noticed by Mr. Las- 
 celles, as taken in Scotland, which weighed 54^ Ibs. 
 The late Sir Hyde Parker captured one in Sweden 
 weighing 60 Ibs. A Salmon was caught by Sir 
 H. Davy above Yairbridge in the Tweed, of the 
 weight of 42 Ibs. ; and a former Earl of Home 
 took another from the same waters of the perhaps 
 unequalled weight of 70 Ibs. within a few ounces. 
 
30 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 Much controversy and many experiments have 
 been devoted to the question, " Will Salmon live 
 and thrive entirely in fresh water that is, in lakes 
 or ponds which have no communication with the 
 sea ? " The answer appears to be in the negative, 
 so far as all practical purposes are concerned. It 
 has been proved that the fish will so far increase 
 under these conditions as to attain a maximum 
 weight of a few pounds ; but the flesh of such fish 
 is comparatively white and insipid, and as an 
 article of food altogether different from that of the 
 sea-bred Salmon. 
 
 The characteristics common to all the Salmon and Trout 
 family (Salmonida) % of which we have several genera in Great 
 Britain, are, bodies scaly ; two back-fins, all the rays of the 
 first fin soft; the second fin adipose or fatty, without rays; 
 numerous gill-rays ; air-bladder large and simple. Of this 
 family, the first genus (Salmo) embraces all fish following the 
 common Salmon and Trout as their types, in which we find 
 the head smooth ; teeth on the vomer, the tongue, both bones 
 of the palate, and on all the jaw-bones above and below; gill- 
 rays varying in number, generally from ten to twelve, but 
 sometimes unequal upon opposite sides ; whilst a great part 
 of the margin of the upper jaw is formed of the maxillary 
 bones. 
 
 In addition to these, and the generic distinctions already 
 given, the Principal Characteristics of the True Salmon are : 
 
 Length of head compared to whole length of fish as i to 5. 
 Body elongated; dorsal and abdominal line about equally 
 convex ; lateral line near middle of body, dividing it about 
 equally. Fleshy portion of tail slender. Scales moderate- 
 sized, oval, and thin, easily removed when young, adherent 
 when old. Teeth stout, pointed, and curved, one line on each 
 side of upper jaw, one line on each bone of palate, one line on 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 31 
 
 i 
 vomer or central bone in roof of mouth when quite young 
 
 (loses a large portion on first visit to salt water, and gradually 
 all, or all but one or two on most forward point of bone), one 
 line on each side of lower jaw, one line on each side of tongue 
 (occasionally two lines on each side of tongue). 
 
 Shape and position of fins in Salmon, Bull-Trout, and Sea- Trout. 
 
 SALMON. 
 
 Tail- fin deeply forked 
 when young, less so 
 at 3rd year ; at 5th 
 year nearly or quite 
 square. 
 
 BULL-TROUT. 
 
 Becomes square at an 
 earlier period than 
 in Salmon, and 
 afterwards gradually 
 convex. 
 
 SEA-TROUT. 
 Less forked than in 
 Salmon of same age ; 
 becomes ultimately 
 square. Tail shorter 
 and smaller than in 
 Salmon. 
 
 Dorsal fin : Hinder Commences about half- Hinder origin exactly 
 
 origin about half- 
 way between point 
 of nose and end of 
 tail-fin. Third ray 
 longest. 
 
 Adipose fin : Hinder 
 origin half-way be- 
 tween origin of last 
 back-fin ray and end 
 of tail-fin. 
 
 way between point 
 of nose and origin of 
 upper tail-fin rays. 
 Base of dorsal longer 
 than longest ray. 
 
 Nearer to end of tail- 
 fin than to origin of 
 last dorsal fin ray. 
 
 half-way between 
 point of nose and 
 end of tail-fin. Se- 
 cond ray longest, 
 same length as base 
 of fin. 
 
 Half-way between ori- 
 gin of last ray of 
 back-fin and end of 
 tail-fin. 
 
 To the above it may be added, that in the Salmon the pec- 
 toral fin equals two-thirds of the length of the head, whilst in 
 the Bull-Trout it equals little more than half, the anal fin also 
 in the former commences about halfway between the origin of 
 the ventral fins and the origin of the lower tail-fin rays, and in 
 the latter nearer to the tail. 
 
 The teeth of the Bull-Trout are larger and stronger than in 
 the other two species, and those of the Sea-Trout are the most 
 numerous. 
 
 Fin-rays: D. 13: P. 12: V. 9: A. 9 : C. 19. Vertebrae, 60. 
 
THE BULL-TROUT. 1 
 
 |H E Bull-trout, also known as the Grey- 
 trout, Sewin, and Round-tail, is a 
 somewhat local fish, sparsely scattered 
 throughout several parts of the United 
 Kingdom, and probably more generally familiar to 
 the ichthyologist than to the fisherman. I believe 
 the lithograph illustrating this chapter to be the only 
 really accurate drawing of the fish ever published in 
 England, most of the representations with which I 
 am acquainted being strikingly unlike their proto- 
 type in almost every particular. It was taken from 
 a male fish of 8 Ibs. weight, in beautiful condition, 
 brought from the Tweed, a river in which the 
 bull-trout is more abundant and reaches to greater 
 perfection than in any other of these islands. The 
 total length of this specimen was 2 ft. 4 Jin., and 
 the girth of the shoulder, just behind the head, 
 
 1 Salmo Eriox. Salmo, a Salmon or trout, Lat. ; eriox, 
 specific name. 
 
BRITISH SPORTING fISH. 33 
 
 Although in an edible point of view inferior to 
 both its congeners, the Salmon and Sea-Trout, 
 looked at with a sportsman's eye the Bull-Trout is a 
 noble fellow. There is a breadth of build and gene- 
 ral "strengthiness" about him which makes us feel 
 that he would be a " foeman worthy of our steel " 
 if we could but induce him to try conclusions 
 with us; if he would but once favourably regard 
 our feathered dainty with that cautious, cunning: 
 eye of his. But to get a big clean-run Bull-Trout to 
 take the fly is a piece of luck that does not very, 
 often fall to the fly-fisher's lot, even in the rivers 
 where he is most plentiful. Lord Home, himself 
 a Tweed-side man, and who boasted that he had 
 killed more Salmon with the rod than any other 
 man ever did, says, that " putting them all together 
 I am certain that I have not killed twenty clean 
 Bull-Trout. Of Bull-Trout kelts thousands may be 
 killed." The season when they run up the Tweed 
 is also against the fisherman, as only the small fish 
 of a few pounds weight are to be found in the river 
 in the spring (April arid May), whilst the largest 
 shoals, and those consisting of by far the biggest 
 fish, weighing from 6 to 2olbs., do not leave the 
 sea until towards the latter end of November., 
 These November fish are in the best condition. 
 
 " The great shoal of these Bull-Trout," says Lord 
 Home, "not taking the river till after the com- 
 mencement of close-time are in a great measure 
 lost both to the proprietor and the public." 
 
 D 
 
34 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 Yarrell, however, speaking of the Bull-Trout 
 generally, appears to differ from this view, as it is 
 evident that if the fish do not run up the rivers 
 till November, they spawn later than the salmon ; 
 whereas Yarrell on the contrary asserts that " they 
 ascend rivers for the purpose of spawning in the 
 same manner as the Salmon, but earlier in the 
 season ; and the fry are believed to go down to 
 the sea sooner than the fry of the Salmon." 
 This discrepancy is probably to be explained 
 by the difference of habits in fish of different 
 waters. 
 
 Some of the most obvious characteristic diver- 
 gencies between the Bull-Trout, the true Salmon 
 and the Sea-Trout have already been given in the 
 preceding chapter. 
 
 A glance at the illustration will at once show 
 the remarkable difference in form between the adult 
 Bull-Trout, and eitherthe full-grown Salmon, or Sea- 
 Trout ; the Bull-Trout being obviously shorter, 
 thicker, and generally more muscular in fact, as 
 its name would appear to express more bull-like 
 in appearance. The Bull-Trout, moreover, is 
 thickly spotted with brown over the back and 
 sides, both above and below the lateral line, and 
 even to the tip of the dorsal fin, which in the salmon 
 is seldom or ever marked with more than a few 
 " sploches," and those close to the base of the fin. 
 The dorsal fin of the Sea-Trout is generally spotted 
 like that of the Bull-Trout, though not quite so 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 35 
 
 thickly. Speaking generally, the fins of these 
 latter fish are more muscular and larger in pro- 
 portion to the rest of its body than those in either 
 of the other two allied species. 
 
 Amongst the localities in which the Bull-Trout 
 is known to exist, may be mentioned some of the 
 streams of Devonshire and Cornwall, the Severn, 
 several of the rivers of South Wales I have 
 caught hundreds in the Usk above Brecon 
 and, according to Dr. Heysham, some of the 
 Cumberland waters debouching into the Solway 
 Frith. In Ireland it occurs very generally pn 
 either side of the northern portion of the island ; 
 and Killala Bay, Donaghadee, Florence Court, 
 Beleek, Crawfordsburn, Nannywater, Ballyhalbert, 
 and Dundrum are all referred to by Thompson as 
 places whence he had obtained specimens. 
 
 Sir William Jardine mentions that the Bull-Trout; 
 has been found in the Annan, Dumfriesshire ; and 
 by Mr. Low it is stated to be an inhabitant of the 
 Loch of Stenness, Orkney. The Liddell, which 
 runs through Roxburghshire, appears to have been 
 once renowned for this fish. Sir Walter Scott, in 
 his notes to the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," says 
 there is an old rhyme which thus celebrates the 
 places in Liddesdale remarkable for game : 
 
 " Billhope braes for bucks and raes, 
 
 And Carit haugh for swine, 
 And Tarras for the good Bull-Trout, 
 
 If he be ta'en in time." 
 
36 BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 
 
 " The bucks and roes as well as the old swine 
 are now extinct, but the good Bull-Trout is still 
 famous." 
 
 All laws relating to Salmon apply equally to the 
 Bull-Trout and its young, under whatever local 
 names they may be known. 
 
 Principal Characteristics of the Bull- Trout (in addition to 
 those already given in preceding chapter). Length of head 
 compared to body only, as i to 4 ; general form of body similar 
 to that of the Salmon, but nape of neck and shoulders thicker, 
 and fleshy portion of tail and base of each of the fins more 
 muscular. Teeth of female smaller than those of male. Elon- 
 gation of lower jaw confined to the males only ; not so con- 
 spicuous as in the Salmon. Scales rather smaller and more 
 numerous than those of a Salmon of equal size. Colour : when 
 in good condition like that of the Salmon-Trout : at spawning- 
 time, (in the males) head olive-brown, body reddish- or orange- 
 brown ; (in the females} blackish grey ; in both fish the back- 
 fins reddish brown, spotted with darker brown, tail-fins dark 
 brown, the other fins dusky brown. Vertebrae commonly 59, 
 occasionally 60. 
 
 Fin-rays: D. u : P. 14: V. 9: A. u : C. 19. 
 
H 
 ^ 
 O 
 X 
 H 
 
 < 
 
 w 
 
 CO 
 
 W 
 
 ffi 
 H 
 
THE SEA-TROUT OR SALMON-TROUT. 1 
 
 HE Sea-Trout, the last of our Silver or 
 Migratory species, has been identified 
 with the Salar of the Moselle, so named 
 by Ausonius in the fourth century 
 
 " Purpureisque Salar stellatus tergore guttis." 
 
 In habits also it closely resembles the Salar, or 
 true Salmon, of modern ichthyologists, and is in- 
 cluded in all statutory restrictions affecting this 
 fish or the Bull-Trout. 
 
 It is the only one of the Migratory species which 
 is likely under any circumstances to be confounded 
 with the Yellow Division of Trout or rather with 
 the Salmo fario ; but the difference in colour be- 
 tween the two fish the one being silver and the 
 other golden is usually too obvious to admit of 
 doubt. It occasionally happens, however, that the 
 Sea-Trout, especially when confined for a long time 
 
 1 Salmo trutta. Trutta^ trout, Lat. 
 
38 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 in a loch, acquires a colour not altogether unlike 
 that of the Yellow Trout ; and when this is the 
 case a reference to the teeth on the vomer, or 
 central bone on the roof of the mouth, will often 
 settle the point. 
 
 These teeth in the common Trout (and also in 
 the Great Lake Trout) run in two distinct rows, 
 whilst in the Sea-Trout they run only in a single 
 row. It is to be observed, however, that the 
 arrangements of the teeth require to be rather 
 closely examined, as in the case of the Sea-Trout 
 the points bend alternately to either side, so as to 
 present rather the appearance of a thinly planted 
 double row ; whilst in the common Trout the two 
 lines of teeth are placed so that a space in one row 
 has a tooth opposite it in the other, making the 
 difference appear at first sight to be little more 
 than one of comparative closeness in the setting of 
 the teeth. 
 
 In regard to the Sea-Trout of the Tweed, Lord 
 Home has the following note : "Of this excellent 
 species I can only repeat that in the Tweed they 
 have almost entirely disappeared. They afford 
 good sport to the angler ; but I never saw one 
 above 7 Ibs. weight. Of the Phinock of the Spey, 
 Hirling of the Nith and Annan, the Whitling 
 or Whiting of the Esk, all one and the same fish, 
 I can say nothing. There is a little fish, however, 
 which makes its appearance about November and 
 December, but in very small numbers, few only 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 39 
 
 being caught, and those of course with the hook. 
 They are called here Silver- whites, and also Black- 
 tails, from a dusky-blue spot in the centre of the 
 tail-fin. They are a beautiful little fish, resembling 
 much small Sea-Trout ; and if not young Sea- 
 Trout, I know not what they are." 
 
 The Don, the Spey, the Tay, the Annan, and 
 the Nith, all produce the Sea-Trout in great abun- 
 dance, as also some of the rivers of Devonshire, 
 where it is called a Truff. It is found in the 
 Severn, and in the Cumberland and Cornwall 
 streams. On the banks of the rivers falling into 
 the Solway Frith, it is termed in its grilse stage a 
 Hiding; and in Wales and Ireland, where it is 
 very numerous, it commonly goes by the name of 
 White Trout. 
 
 White-Trout fishing on some of the Scotch and 
 Irish lakes is grand sport, and, like other lake- 
 fishing, has an advantage in that, a boat being 
 usually employed, ladies who are not strong 
 enough to wield a Salmon-rod or face the diffi- 
 culties of a scramble down a rocky river-bank, are 
 able to take part in it. In speaking of ladies as 
 White-Trout fishers, I am reminded of a disgraceful 
 practical joke of which I was, I fear, the chief in- 
 stigator and abettor, and of which a very charming 
 young lady, and a capital* angler to boot, was one 
 of the victims. The scene was Loch Maree. 
 When staying with my friend Mr. Edwin Darval 
 at the Poolewe Inn, on fishing designs intent, we 
 
40 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 made acquaintance with a gentleman well known 
 amongst the Cotton Lords of Lancashire, who, with 
 his daughter, spent most of their days, like our- 
 selves, in fly-fishing for White Trout on the loch. 
 One evening at dinner we made a match. We 
 wagered sundry bottles of champagne that as the 
 result of the next day's foray amongst the Trout 
 our " basket " would outweigh theirs. Accordingly, 
 next morning both parties started betimes for the 
 lake ; and as the boats kept pretty well within 
 hail of each other, we could guess by the use of 
 our eyes and ears that we were well on the win- 
 ning side, when, just as we were returning, Miss 
 G - hooked, and, after some pretty play with 
 her light Trout-rod, landed, a Grilse of at least 
 five or six pounds weight ! 
 
 The Trout in the part of the loch we had been 
 fishing ran comparatively small, and despite our 
 superiority in numbers it was evident that this 
 <( happenin' baste," as our boatman called it, would 
 turn the day against us. 
 
 ^ What was to be done ? For two experienced 
 fly-fishers, who plumed themselves not a little on 
 their " talent," to be beaten in a walk by a * chit 
 of a schoolgirl ' and an old gentleman of seventy 
 was ignominy not to be endured. . . . Necessity 
 is the mother of invention. As we were landing 
 a bright idea suddenly struck me I recollected 
 the story of the "Jumping Frog." . . . Making 
 some excuse to let our antagonists get ahead a 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 41 
 
 little, we rapidly crammed down the throats of our 
 Trout as many small round pebbles as they could 
 bear without bursting. . . . Well, yes, it was very 
 shocking I'm sure, dear reader, you wouldn't 
 have done such a thing! . . . We "won the race," 
 however rather a close thing, by-the-bye, after 
 all and luckily escaped detection on "weighing 
 in," notwithstanding the suspicious abdominal ap- 
 pearances of our fish. " Singular," was the only 
 remark the old gentleman made, " but your Trout 
 seem to be all in roe ! " 
 
 Of course we confessed our shameful imposture 
 after the champagne had been drunk. 
 
 A propos of lady-anglers, I would point out here 
 that fishing especially such fishing as I have been 
 describing is of all field sports that most suited 
 to their strength and physique. On this subject 
 I have observed in the " Badminton Library of 
 Sport," " A woman's figure makes the handling of 
 the gunstock always rather awkward, and the recoil 
 is sometimes apt unless very light charges are 
 used to be dangerous. But to fishing there is 
 no drawback, unless, indeed, it be the petticoats 
 with which some thick-ankled leader of fashion in 
 bygone times has managed to cramp and disfigure 
 one of the prettiest parts of the human form. No 
 skirts will vex the ' tameless ankles ' of our women 
 of the future. Already there is a marked and 
 healthy improvement visible in the length of the 
 dress, and women need no longer draggle about 
 
42 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 behind them a ridiculous and often muddy train, 
 which if it does not do duty for a road-sweeper 
 cannot certainly be shown to subserve to any 
 other useful purpose. 
 
 " The influence of dress has been recognized by 
 many philosophers as exercising a powerful effect 
 in moulding the national character ; and I am 
 quite satisfied that if English men and women, 
 and those living in town as well as in the country, 
 were to adopt a dress allowing greater freedom 
 and play to the limbs and muscles, and (so far as 
 men are concerned) would discard, once and for 
 all, chimney-pot hats, frock coats, leg-bags I use 
 the term literally, not in a slangy sense and the 
 other paraphernalia of the hand-box, there would 
 be a marked advance in the manliness and ' robust- 
 ness ' of the race. 
 
 " Women who shoot or fish should never hesi- 
 tate to wear a dress suitable for the purpose ; 
 long skirts are not only constantly in the way, but 
 often prove a source of real danger to the wearer. 
 The same remark holds still more true in regard to 
 long riding-habits ; and if the readers of these lines 
 had seen as many accidents, and hair-breadth es- 
 capes from accidents, in the hunting field, as I have, 
 owing to long skirts, they would join in the outcry 
 which ought, in the name of common sense, to be 
 raised against them. However, I am glad to see 
 that there is some improvement of late years in 
 this respect also. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 43 
 
 "In arranging a lady's fishing- dress, next to the 
 short skirts thick boots more or less waterproof 
 are the most important item, having regard both 
 to protection and comfort ; but this is precisely the 
 point on which the male adviser finds the greatest 
 difficulty in procuring a favourable hearing for his 
 views. Simply on the score of 'prettiness' it 
 cannot be said that a stout double-soled shooting 
 or fishing-boot is as ' killing ' as a Queen Anne 
 slipper, Louis Quatorze shoe, or a pair of dainty 
 bottines, expressly designed to set off and empha- 
 size the delicate arch of the instep, whilst display- 
 ing the foot and ankle in a position which, if not 
 quite natural, is at least exceedingly picturesque 
 
 * The flower she touch'd on, dipp'd and rose, 
 And turn'd to look again.' . . . 
 
 " But, my dear lady readers if I should be so 
 favoured as to have any do not let it be for- 
 gotten that there is ' a beauty of fitness/ and that 
 where really rough work has to be done, 'ease 
 before elegance,' and, it might be added, * health 
 before both,' is a golden maxim. 
 
 " The following hints for dress, which have 
 been kindly given me by a lady who has had 
 large practical experience with both rod and gun, 
 may possibly be found of service : 
 
 " ' Short skirt of linsey-wolsey made as simple as possible 
 in fact, a kind of ' housemaid's dress.' Norfolk jacket made 
 of all wool material. A comfortable toque (the close-fitting 
 
44 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 toque does not catch the wind). It is best to have the costume 
 of one colour, say a nice heather mixture or whitish grey. I 
 advise ' linsey ' for the skirt, as it is everlasting in wear, and 
 the ' all wool ' for the Norfolk jacket, being warmer and more 
 healthy. 
 
 " ' Now for the most important item boots. They should 
 fit perfectly, and be made of porpoise-hide, with honest broad 
 soles and plenty of room for the toes, and flat heels in their 
 proper place, not under the arch of the instep. The boots 
 should lace in the same way that men's shooting-boots do, and 
 be made to come well up the leg (so that gaiters can be dis- 
 pensed with). Length of skirt an inch or so above the ankle. 
 
 " ' This dress is suitable for either fishing or shooting. If 
 worn for the latter over a 'clayey' country, a few inches of 
 light waterproof on the bottom of the skirt are advisable. 
 Some ladies wear gaiters, but I think if the boots are made high 
 enough they are not necessary. 'All wool' under-garments 
 should be worn, from stockings upwards.' 
 
 [For this purpose I most strongly recommend, 
 from personal experience, the 'all wool clothing,' 
 manufactured and sold by the " Jaeger Sanitary 
 Clothing Company," Princes Street, Cavendish 
 Square. These garments, from stockings to over- 
 coats, all made under Dr. Jaeger's instructions, are 
 beautifully light, warm and healthy.] 
 
 " The comfort to the fisherwoman, as well as to 
 the fisherman and, indeed, to all sportsmen of 
 boots which are both thoroughly easy and at the 
 same time completely waterproof, is so obvious 
 that I make no apology for offering a few hints on 
 the subject, the more so that during experiments 
 extending over some decades I have myself suf- 
 fered 'many things at the hands of many boot- 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 45 
 
 makers.' Any bungler in the trade can, of course, 
 make at least a passably waterproof boot if he 
 allows himself unlimited latitude in the matter of 
 weight and clumsiness, or ' stiffness.' The art is 
 to make a boot waterproof, and at the same time 
 light, and as soft to the foot as a kid glove." 
 
 I have, at last, however, succeeded in finding 
 some bootmakers who can make shooting-boots 
 which fulfil these conditions. Messrs. Dowie and 
 Marshall, 455, Strand, have, working on the lines 
 I suggested, lately made me several pairs of 
 shooting-boots weighing only about 2 Ibs. the pair, 
 instead of 3 Ibs. or 4 Ibs., the ordinary weight 
 and as comfortable and impervious to water as the 
 most exacting can desire. 
 
 For " waterproofing " all cloth and woollen 
 materials I do not say making them actually 
 waterproof, but sufficiently so to keep the under- 
 garments practically dry I can recommend the 
 following receipt, given me by R. Atkinson, Esq., 
 of Temple Sowerby : 
 
 Dissolve sugar of lead and alum in rain water, one ounce of 
 each to a quart of water. When settled down, draw off the 
 clear (this is most easily done with a syphon), saturate the 
 woollen article in it (I generally leave it in twenty-four hours), 
 and dry in the open air. From my own experience I have 
 found a coat thus treated to be quite waterproof. 
 
 From i to 5 Ibs. is the usual weight of the Sea- 
 Trout, but much larger specimens have been re- 
 corded. In 1840, a male Sea-Trout was taken at 
 
46 BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 
 
 Sandstill fishery in the mouth of the Tweed, which 
 was 37 inches in length, 22 in girth, and which 
 weighed 24^ Ibs. 
 
 Such a size is, however, of course entirely ex- 
 ceptional, and a fish of a more normal weight gives 
 a better idea of the ordinary run of Sea-Trout as 
 met with constantly in our lakes and rivers. The 
 specimen selected for the illustration was a female 
 Spey fish, weighing tjlbs. 
 
 Principal Characteristics of the Sea- Trout. Length of head 
 compared to body only, as i to 4 ; depth of body compared to 
 whole length of fish also as i to 4. Teeth small and numerous, 
 in five rows on upper surface of mouth, those on the vomer, or 
 centre bone in roof of mouth, generally extending some dis- 
 tance along it, the points turning outwards alternately to either 
 side ; one row on each side of under jaw, and 3 or 4 strong, 
 sharp, and curved teeth on each side of tongue. Shape of tail- 
 fin, and relative position of fins, see p. 31. Lateral line very 
 nearly straight. Scales adhering closely, in form rather a longer 
 oval than those of the Salmon. Colour when in season : upper 
 part of head and body bluish black, lighter on sides, which are 
 marked (principally above the lateral line) with numerous spots 
 somewhat resembling in form the letter X. Lower parts of 
 sides and belly, cheeks, and gill-covers silvery white ; back-fins 
 and tail nearly same colour as back; pectoral fins small, and 
 bluish white; anal fin and ventral fins white. Vertebrae 58. 
 
 Fin-rays: D. 12 : P. 13 : V. 9 : A. 10 : C. 19. 
 
E-H 
 
 CD 
 
 o 
 tf 
 
 H 
 
 ft 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
THE COMMON TROUT. 1 
 
 ITH the Common Trout the Yellow 
 " burn " and Brown Trout of the angler 
 we commence the Golden, non-mi- 
 gratory species of the genus Salmo. 
 
 This group is at once distinguished from the 
 last-named by the difference in colour, a mark 
 which, with the one occasional exception in the 
 case of the Sea-Trout, already referred to, will 
 generally prevent the possibility of any confusion. 
 It is also easily distinguished from the Charrs, or 
 Third Division, by the red and orange colours of 
 the latter, and by the additional characteristic of 
 having two complete rows of teeth on the vomer, 
 whilst in the Charrs the vomer has only a few 
 teeth, and those on the most forward part. 
 
 Of the Yellow Trout there are probably only 
 two really distinct species in this country though 
 
 1 Salmo fario. Salmo> a Salmon or Trout ; fario, the Trout, 
 Lat. 
 
48 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 the varieties are numerous, and in some instances 
 present such considerable differences, as to have 
 led to their being classified as separate species 
 as, for example, the Loch Leven and Gillaroo 
 varieties. 
 
 The universally admitted species are 
 
 The Common, or Yellow Trout (Salmo fario], 
 
 and 
 The Great Lake Trout (Salmo ferox). 
 
 In regard to each of these the specific charac- 
 teristics are given in detail at the end of the several 
 articles ; but a few general observations here will 
 possibly enable the reader to distinguish them 
 without the necessity of resorting to a minute 
 comparison. 
 
 1. As regards localities. The Common Yellow 
 
 Trout breeds irfdifferently in brooks, rivers, 
 and lakes, whilst the Great Lake Trout is 
 never found except in or close to lakes, and 
 these almost always large and deep. 
 
 2. The flesh of the Great Lake Trout is generally 
 
 a sort of orangey-yellow, and that of the com- 
 mon Trout pink or white, according to the 
 nature of the water and the condition of the 
 fish, the spots also on the former are usually 
 surrounded by a paler ring, sometimes of a 
 reddish tint. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 49 
 
 3. Length of head. The disproportionate size of 
 
 the head in the Great Lake Trout is very 
 remarkable, it being usually little less than 
 one-fourth of the total length of the fish, tail- 
 fin included, whilst in the Yellow Trout it 
 is commonly not much more than one-fifth. 
 
 4. Tail-fin. The tail-fin in the Great Lake Trout 
 
 (as shown in the illustration), is nearly square 
 at the end, and is considerably wider than the 
 widest part of the body, whilst in the Com- 
 mon Yellow Trout it is very obviously nar- 
 rower than the same measurement. 
 
 By bearing these characteristics in mind, the 
 student of ichthyology should be readily able to 
 distinguish with tolerable certainty between the 
 two species. I say with " tolerable certainty," be- 
 cause an intimate knowledge of the distinguishing 
 characteristics of the various species viSalmonida 
 is very difficult to acquire, and is, indeed, rarely 
 attained except by the scientific ichthyologist, or 
 by the fisherman (angler) who has passed half a 
 life-time on the river bank, and who ekes out a 
 little " science " with a great deal of " practice." 
 
 Except in some of the more permanent charac- 
 teristics already alluded to, the varieties to be 
 found amongst Trout are simply endless. Its 
 colouring and even its shape are susceptible of 
 infinite difference, and vary as much as the quali- 
 ties of waters (whether in sources or feeders), 
 
 E 
 
50 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 geological strata of the beds, and nature and quan- 
 tity of food supplied by the brooks, streams, rivers, 
 ponds, lynns, and lakes in which it is bred. The 
 diversity of colouring is, in fact, a defence fur- 
 nished by nature for the preservation of the fish, 
 which would otherwise be so plainly visible upon 
 the slightest change of water or soil as to fall an 
 easy prey to its enemies, whether biped or quad- 
 ruped ; and experiments have shown that the 
 change is a question of minutes rather than of days 
 or weeks. Upon its transfer from a light- to a 
 dark-coloured vessel, or vice versa, the hue under- 
 goes an instant alteration, and in a very short time 
 assimilates itself more or less perfectly to that of 
 its new domicile. Thus, for instance, the Trout of 
 Lynn Ogwin, almost the whole bottom of which is 
 formed of grass, have, when first caught, a brilliant 
 emerald gloss over their golden and yellow tints ; 
 and although the waters are of the utmost clear- 
 ness and the lake swarming with fish, I was never 
 able in any one instance to distinguish these from 
 their surrounding green. Again, in the Spean 
 Water, Inverness, there are several small tarns in 
 which I have frequently taken fish of almost the 
 colour of ink ; yet these tarns actually join the 
 Spean, where many of the Trout are of a fine rich 
 yellow, the cause of the difference being that the 
 river has a bed of gravel, whilst the tarns are 
 floored with a deep deposit of bog mud. I have 
 even known a similar difference to exist between 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 51 
 
 Trout frequenting opposite sides of the same river 
 or loch. 
 
 Amongst special breeds of Trout which have in 
 process of time, owing to local circumstances of 
 food, &c., acquired certain well-marked, and, so to 
 speak, permanent, peculiarities, may be mentioned 
 the Trout of Loch Leven, in Scotland ; the Gil- 
 laroo Trout of Ireland ; and the Boding found in 
 some of the Cumberland lakes. The Botling is 
 described by Dr. Davy, in his " Angler in the 
 Lake District," as ascending the lake streams in 
 the autumn, and as being a fierce, powerful fish, 
 frequently attacking the other Salmonida whilst 
 spawning. In form, it is short and deep, with the 
 lower jaw much hooked, or curved upwards ; and 
 when full-grown, its girth considerably exceeds its 
 length. In the arrangement of its teeth and spots 
 it resembles closely the ordinary type of Trout. 
 
 The largest of the Irish lakes, Lough Neagh, as 
 well as L. Bofin, L. Corrib, L. Mask, and others, 
 produce a Trout which has been by some natura- 
 lists too hastily considered as a distinct species 
 the Gillaroo. The inner coats of the stomach in 
 this fish are considerably thickened, so as to afford 
 increased muscular power, and the teeth are re- 
 markably small ; but beyond these, and the mere 
 divergences in external form, so little difference 
 appears to exist between it and the common 
 English Trout as to lead to the conclusion that 
 the Gillaroo is only a variety of that species. 
 
52 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 The Loch Leven Trout derives its name from the 
 barren lake, and now dismantled castle celebrated 
 as the prison of the unfortunate Mary Queen of 
 Scots ; but it has also been recognized by Dr. 
 Parnell in several other Scotch lochs. 
 
 The two most noticeable points in which the 
 Loch Leven variety differs from the Common Trout 
 are (first) in the colour of the flesh, which is or used 
 to be almost of a deep red ; and (secondly) in the 
 absence of any red spots, which are almost con- 
 stantly present in all other varieties of the Salmo 
 fario. The red colour of the flesh is supposed, 
 with good reason, to be due to the small species of 
 shell-fish or water-snail, which especially abounds 
 in Loch Leven, and forms, probably, the staple 
 article of the Trout dietary. During the last thirty 
 years the Loch Leven Trout are said to have con- 
 siderably fallen off in colour and condition, owing 
 to the partial draining of the loch having destroyed 
 some of their best feeding-ground. They spawn 
 in January, February, and March. 
 
 The Thames and the Avon are amongst the 
 waters producing the largest breed rand I might 
 say the largest individual specimens of Salmo 
 fario, or Common Trout, with which I am ac- 
 quainted. Thames Trout of 5 Ibs. to 10 Ibs. 
 weight are common, and captures are on record of 
 fish up to at least i6lbs. or 17 Ibs. The same 
 weights could easily be equalled- and indeed sur- 
 passed from the chronicles of the Avon. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 53 
 
 At Herdcott House, near Salisbury, there is 
 preserved the skin of a Trout that turned the scale 
 at 25 Ibs., and was in length 4 feet 2\ inches ; in 
 girth it measured 2 feet i inch. Another fish is re- 
 corded to have been taken in a small tributary of the 
 Trent at Drayton Manor exceeding in weight 2 1 
 Ibs. ; but there appears to be some doubt whether 
 it was a bond fide Yellow Trout or a Salmo trutta. 
 
 The usual spawning-time of Trout is in the 
 latter end of October or November, and thence up 
 to the beginning of February (the operation, how- 
 ever, in each particular fish continuing only about 
 eight days) ; and at this period the under jaw in 
 the old males exhibits in a modified degree the 
 elongation and upward curving characteristic of the 
 male Salmon at the same time. 
 
 From the experiments of Dr. Davy, elsewhere 
 commented upon, it appears probable that at least 
 a proportion of Trout, like some Salmon, spawn 
 only in alternate years. The situation chosen for, 
 and the mode of conducting the spawning-pro- 
 cess are also very similar to those noticed in the 
 Salmon, the eye, however, of the young fish be- 
 coming visible in about three weeks, and the egg 
 being usually hatched in from forty to fifty days. 
 The number of eggs, in proportion to the weight 
 of the fish, is about the same as in the case of the 
 Salmon^ The yolk-bag is absorbed in from three 
 to five weeks ; and in six weeks or two months the 
 young fry are about an inch long and able to shift 
 
54 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 for themselves. From this time their growth is 
 rapid or slow according to the nature and quality 
 of their food and other local circumstances. 
 
 In order to ascertain the relative nourishment of 
 the different descriptions of food, some interesting 
 experiments were made not many years ago. 
 Trout were placed in three separate tanks, one of 
 which was supplied daily with worms, another with 
 live minnows, and the third with flies. The result 
 was, that the fish fed with worms grew slowly and 
 had a lean appearance, those dieted on minnows 
 became much larger, whilst such as were fattened 
 upon flies only, attained in a short space of time ex- 
 traordinary dimensions, weighing twice as much 
 as both the others put together the quantity of 
 food eaten by them being actually less. 1 
 
 On another occasion Trout were kept for many 
 years in a store stream, and tested with various 
 kinds of diet, when it was ascertained that in 
 some instances the increase in weight was as much 
 as 9lbs. in four years (or from i to 10 Ibs.) 
 
 Recent piscicultural experiments have demon- 
 strated the great value of the Fresh-water Shrimp 
 ('Gammari ') as an article offish diet, and for feeding 
 young fry on, and I once had an exceptionally good 
 opportunity of verifying the growth-rate of Trout 
 when fed upon this insect. I quote from my 
 volumes on Fishing in Messrs. Longman and Co.'s 
 " Badminton Library of Sport : "- 
 
 1 Stoddart, " Art of Angling in Scotland." 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 55 
 
 " At Encombe, in Dorsetshire, the seat of the 
 Earl of Eldon, there is an artificial pond of two or 
 three acres in extent facing the house. The pond 
 is paved with marble at the bottom and sides, and 
 is supplied with water from a small fountain fed 
 from a spring in the neighbouring valley, carried 
 by an artificial tunnel under some high hills. The 
 pond is, for all practical purposes, stagnant ; the 
 fountain's supply not being more than equivalent 
 to the summer evaporation . From 1862 to 1864 
 this pond was drained off and left absolutely dry, 
 in order to kill the weeds and clean the bottom. 
 In 1864 the water was turned in again, and in 
 August of that year a number of artificially reared 
 Trout of the same season's hatching, about three- 
 quarters of an inch long, were put into the pond. 
 In August, 1866, the pond was again dried for 
 cleansing purposes, when it was found that the 
 Trout had grown in the space of two years to an 
 amazing extent four or five pounds being the 
 smallest size, and a weight of six pounds ten ounces 
 having been attained in several cases. 
 
 "When visiting at Encombe in September of 
 the following year, I examined the pond at Lord 
 Eldon's request, with a view to ascertaining to 
 what cause, in the absence of any artificial feeding, 
 the extraordinary growth-rate was to be attributed. 
 With the aid of a bucket and a rope, the explana- 
 tion was not hard to find : the whole pond was 
 simply swarming with water shrimps, and on ques- 
 
56 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 tioning the keeper he assured me that when the 
 water in the pond was let off there were literally 
 cart-loads of these insects. My informant as to 
 the facts and dates was Lord Eldon, who also exa- 
 mined the keeper in my presence as to the circum- 
 stances, and whose account was again confirmed in 
 every respect by the corroborative testimony of 
 Mr. Dickson, one of Lord Eldon's stewards, who 
 was present and saw the fish weighed when caught. 
 
 " The only outlet to the pond was a small drain 
 at one end, up which nothing could practically pass, 
 even if there were any Trout streams at hand with 
 which it could be supposed to communicate. 
 
 "It may be mentioned that the weight of the 
 Trout at the end of the first year was from a quar- 
 ter of a pound to half a pound." 
 
 From this account and the experiments on the 
 different modes of fattening Trout above referred 
 to, it is evident that fish and grubs bear no com- 
 parison with insect-food in point of nourishment, 
 doubtless in consequence of the amount of phos- 
 phate of lime contained in the latter. Of the 
 insects specially contributing to the food of fish, 
 probably the most nutritious of all are the May- 
 flies, upon which, when arrived at maturity, the 
 adult Trout wreak a signal vengeance for the de- 
 struction effected by the larvae of the one amongst 
 the eggs of the other. 
 
 Principal Characteristics of the Common Trout (Sal mo fario). 
 (Taken from a Hampshire fish, 12 inches in length.) Length 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 57 
 
 of head compared to length of head and body, without tail-fin, 
 as i to 4 ; depth of body rather greater than length of head. 
 Profile of back and belly about equally convex. Head blunt ; 
 lower jaw longest when the mouth is open, but shutting within 
 the upper jaw on its being closed. Back-fin commencing be- 
 tween point of nose and commencement of upper rays of tail- 
 fin ; third ray of back-fin longest, and longer than base of fin. 
 Small back-fin commencing halfway between origin of large 
 back-fin and upper extremity of tail-fin ; pectoral fin two-thirds 
 of length of head ; ventral fins under middle of first back-fin, 
 and half-way between origin of pectoral fin and end of base of 
 anal fin ; anal fin beginning halfway between origin of ventral 
 fin and commencement of lower rays of tail-fin. Tail slightly 
 forked, very gradually becoming square, or slightly convex in 
 very old fish. Pyloric caeca l seldom exceeding 46 in number. 
 Teeth numerous, strong, and curving inwards, in six rows on 
 upper surface of mouth and jaw, and four on lower. Teeth 
 larger in males than in females. Number of scales above and 
 below lateral line about 25. Vertebrae 56. 
 
 The following were the full colours of a Dart- 
 moor Trout taken by the author in May, 1885 : 
 
 The under line of belly (not seen when fish is looked at 
 sideways), white ; sides, for one third of the way up, golden 
 yellow ; two lines of red spots, one above and one below the 
 lateral line : dark brown spots all over back, also above the 
 lateral line, and a few below it just behind the gills; a few 
 black or dark brown spots on the gill cover (opercuium). Head, 
 gill-covers, and irides green bronzy-gold ; back and top of 
 head, bronzy-green ; golden under the throat. Dorsal-fin green 
 with black spots; Pectoral- and ventral-fins orange; anal-fin 
 green-orange, edged with white ; adipose-fin having a bright 
 margin of pinky-red, the same colour as the red spots on the 
 body ; tail-fin orange-green, top and bottom edges fringed with 
 orangey-red. 
 
 Fin-rays: D. 14: P. 14: V. 9 : A. n : C. 19. 
 
 1 The pyloric caeca are narrow pouches or culs-de-sac, more or 
 less numerous, attached to the pylorus or mouth of the intestines. 
 
THE GREAT LAKE TROUT. 1 
 
 HE points in which this fish differs from 
 the Common Trout, and also the dis- 
 tinctions by which it may be most easily 
 recognized, have been already given in 
 the chapter on Salmon. 
 
 The Great Lake Trout, which is perhaps best 
 known to anglers as the species for which Loch 
 Awe has always been famous, is probably distri- 
 buted throughout almost all the larger and deeper 
 lochs of Scotland. It occurs to my knowledge in 
 Lochs Ericht, Lochy, Garry, and Laggan, and it 
 has also been recognized in Loch Shin, in Lochs 
 Loyal and Assynt, and amongst some of the 
 Orkney and Shetland Islands. In Ireland it ap- 
 pears to be an inhabitant of all the best-known 
 and most extensive lakes, having been found in 
 Loughs Mask, Melvin, Erne, Corrib, and Neagh, 
 where it is locally named Buddagh, the younger 
 
 1 Salmo ferox. Salmo, a Salmon or Trout ; ferox, fierce, 
 Lat. 
 

H 
 ^3 
 O 
 
 
 
 W 
 
 5 
 < 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 na 
 
 E- 
 
BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 59 
 
 and smaller-sized fish being termed Dolachans. It 
 is the Ullswater Trout and Grey Trout of the 
 English Lake-districts, referred to by Dr. Hey- 
 sham, and was at one time, it appears, erroneously 
 considered to be identical with the Great Trout of 
 the Lake of Geneva a theory contradicted by 
 Agassiz, who pronounced it to be distinct from any 
 of the large Continental species. 
 
 The specific name ferox has been given to this 
 fish from its extraordinary fierceness and voracity, 
 which are such that, having once seized a bait, it 
 will allow itself to be dragged by its hold for forty 
 or fifty yards, and when accidentally freed will im- 
 mediately seize it again. The stomachs of the 
 specimens that I have caught have been constantly 
 found gorged with food. The only way of taking 
 the larger fish is by spinning with a Loach, a small 
 Parr, or other glittering bait trailed behind a boat, 
 for which purpose very powerful tackle is required, 
 as the fish is of immense strength, and its teeth are 
 nearly as sharp as those of a Pike. 
 
 The Great Lake Trout is almost wholly confined 
 to lochs and deep extensive tracts of water, where 
 it reigns in solitary grandeur, seldom venturing far 
 up or down the streams, and never descending to 
 the sea. It spawns in September. 
 
 Principal Characteristics of the Great Lake Trout. Length 
 of head compared to total length of head, body, and tail-fin, 
 about as i to 4! ; depth of body less than length of head. 
 Teeth large, strong, and numerous, arranged in six rows above 
 
60 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 and four below two of the upper rows extending along the 
 vomer. Origin of back-fin halfway between point of nose and 
 commencement of upper tail-fin rays; third ray of back-fin 
 longest, and equal to length of base of fin ; small back-fin half- 
 way between last ray of large back-fin and end of tail-fin, and 
 directly over origin of last ray of anal fin. Fins generally rather 
 small and muscular. Colours when in season : upper parts and 
 back-fin deep purplish brown, changing into reddish grey, and 
 thence into fine orange on breast and belly ; whole body when 
 fresh out of water as if glazed over with a tint of rich lake- 
 colour. Gill-covers and back-fin marked with large dark spots, 
 and whole body covered with markings of different sizes and 
 varying in number in different individuals, being sometimes 
 scattered and of large size, and at others thickly set and of 
 small dimensions. Each spot surrounded by a paler ring occa- 
 sionally of a reddish hue. Spots becoming more scattered 
 below lateral line ; none on belly. Pectoral, ventral, and anal 
 fins yellowish green, darker towards the extremities. Tail of 
 great breadth and power broader than greatest depth of body, 
 slightly forked when young, becoming square with age ; in very 
 old fish slightly convex. Pyloric caeca from 34 to 49 in num- 
 ber. Scales thin and flexible, different in form from those of 
 the Trout, and more circular than those of any of the migra- 
 tory species. 
 
 Fin-rays in specimen } _ 
 
 \ D. 13: P. 14: V. 9: A. ii : C. 19. 
 from Loch Awe : j 
 
 In specimens from Lough Neagh, one ray less in D., P., and 
 A. fins, and one ray more in C. fin. 
 
 The only remaining British representatives of 
 the genus Salmo? viz., the Charrs being, like 
 the ferox, exclusively inhabitants of Lakes, may 
 appropriately receive in this connection a few 
 words for the sake of completeness ; although, 
 
 1 Or true Salmon and Trout species. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 61 
 
 unfortunately for the Angler, not coming strictly 
 under the denomination of " Sporting Fish." In- 
 deed, the species of this very beautiful group 
 rarely take either bait or fly : so rarely that, 
 amongst all the lakes, lochs, and loughs I have 
 fished in all parts of the three kingdoms, I never 
 actually caught an undeniable Charr but once, and 
 that was in a little ghastly-looking, deep, black 
 "tarn" on the top of a mountain in Inverness, 
 during a snowstorm. 
 
 At least five distinct species of Charrs, in- 
 habiting different localities in the British Islands, 
 have, however, been identified by Dr. Giinther, 
 who has written a series of most interesting and 
 beautifully illustrated papers on the subject. These 
 species are i. Salmo Cambricus, the Welsh Charr. 
 
 2. Salmo Willughbii, the Windermere Charr. 
 
 3. Salmo Grayi, the Grey Charr, or Fresh-water 
 Herring of Lough Melvin, Ireland. 4. Salmo 
 Alpinus, the Northern Charr, found in Lake 
 Helier, Hoy, Orkneys, and probably in other 
 Scotch waters ; and 5, Salmo Colii, found in 
 Loughs Esk and Dan, Ireland. 
 
 As a Division or Group the Charrs may gene- 
 rally be distinguished from the two other sections 
 of the same genus by the brilliant tints of the 
 belly, which increase in vividness as the spawning- 
 season approaches, and by the comparatively very 
 minute size of their scales. 
 
THE GRAYLING. 1 
 
 LTHOUGH a well-known and be.auti- 
 ful member of the Salmon family, the 
 Grayling belongs to a different genus 
 to the preceding groups, which all follow 
 the true Salmon and Trout as their types. Its 
 generic characteristics are : two back-fins ; the base 
 of the first very long, with numerous rays ; the 
 second small and adipose, without rays. Mouth 
 small, with a squarish orifice ; teeth very small and 
 conical ; air-bladder large ; body elongated. Gill- 
 rays seven or eight. 
 
 In the " Angler-Naturalist," 2 in my remarks on 
 the Grayling, I observe that " Whilst yielding 
 to its sister species the Trout in the qualities of 
 dash and obstinate courage, the Grayling is yet a 
 sturdy and mettlesome fish * a foeman worthy of 
 
 1 Thymallns vulgaris. Thymallus^ " thy my " from thy mum , 
 thyme, and mdgaris, common, Lat. 
 
 2 "A Popular History of British Fresh-water Fish," or the 
 " Angler-Naturalist." London: Routledge and Sons. 
 
BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 63 
 
 our steel ;' and if the former is the handsomer, the 
 latter must, I think, be admitted to be the prettier 
 species of the two. The Trout has, so to speak, a 
 Herculean cast of beauty; the Grayling rather 
 that of an Apollo light, delicate, and gracefully 
 symmetrical." 
 
 Though abounding in some streams, the Gray- 
 ling is a remarkably local and even comparatively 
 rare fish, thriving best in rivers the bottoms of 
 which are composed principally of sandy gravel or 
 loam a soil highly favourable to the production 
 of the insect food on which it in a great measure 
 subsists. Rocky or stony bottoms are very inimi- 
 cal to its breeding ; and this is probably the reason 
 why, though flourishing in many Continental 
 waters, so few exist in those of Ireland or Scot- 
 land. Indeed, even in England, a dozen names 
 or so include all our streams which have any right 
 really to be considered as properly Grayling- 
 waters ; and these, with hardly an exception, be- 
 long to the southern and western portions of the 
 island. The fact is no doubt accurately stated by 
 Mr. Elaine when he says, " Grayling require other 
 peculiarities of location besides those of tempera- 
 ture, such as, for instance, the general character of 
 the water they inhabit, and certain circumstances in 
 the nature of its composition derived from its sources. 
 It is probably owing to the abstraction of some of 
 these requisites that the breeding of the fish in 
 several rivers in which they have been attempted to 
 
64 THE SPORTING PISH 
 
 be naturalised has not been attended with much 
 success. In some they soon disappeared ; in others 
 they remained, but never thrived ; while in some 
 waters, though they lived, and at first increased, 
 yet they were afterwards observed to shift their 
 quarters to different grounds, in most of which 
 cases it proved, as in the Test of Hampshire, that 
 they migrated from above downwards, probably in 
 search of deeper and more tranquil waters : for the 
 angler cannot fail to observe that Grayling do not, 
 like Trout, affect very rapid shallows and the 
 coldest torrents ; on the contrary, they seem to 
 thrive best where milder currents alternate with 
 deep and extensive pools." On these rapids, how- 
 ever or "stickles," as they are termed small 
 Grayling may frequently be found, but the large 
 fish rarely, except in the spawning-season. The 
 haunts of large Grayling are the deepish and 
 slowly-running tails of streams or pools, a few 
 yards before the formation of fresh shallows ; and 
 here they will be found at all times, except when 
 spawning. 
 
 It has been asserted that the Grayling is not, 
 like the Trout, indigenous to this country, but was 
 introduced by the monks on account of its edible 
 qualities a supposition to which the peculiarity of 
 the local distribution doubtless gave rise. The fol- 
 lowing is a list of the best known Grayling waters, 
 though I will not say that there may not be others 
 with which I am unacquainted : 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 65 
 
 In Hampshire and Wiltshire the Grayling is 
 found in the Test, the Itchen, and in both the 
 Avons, &c. ; in Herefordshire, in the Teme, the 
 Lug, the Wye, and the Arrow ; in Shropshire, in 
 the Teme and Clun ; in Staffordshire, in the 
 H odder, the Trent, the Dove, the Ely the, and the 
 Wye ; in Derbyshire, in the Dove ; in Merioneth- 
 shire, in the Dee, between Curlen and Bala ; in 
 Lancashire, in the Ribble ; in Yorkshire, in the 
 Derwent, near Scarborough, in the Yore, the 
 Wharfe, and in the Whiske, near Northallerton, 
 in the Rye, Swale, Costa, and (Yorkshire) Dove, 
 near Pickering; in Berkshire, in the Kennet, at 
 Hungerford ; and in Cumberland, according to 
 Heysham (but this appears doubtful), in the Esk 
 and the Eden. In Scotland the Grayling may now 
 be considered to be established in the Clyde, and 
 it has also been recently caught in the Annan, as 
 recorded by a writer in the " Fishing Gazette." 
 
 The Teme Grayling has the reputation of being 
 the finest in England, and when in the height of 
 condition that is, in October or November and 
 just taken from the water, is certainly one of the 
 most beautiful fish that can be imagined. At this 
 time the back is of a deep purple colour, with 
 small dark irregular spots on the sides ; the sto- 
 mach is brilliantly white, with a fringe or lacing of 
 gold ; the tail-, pectoral, and ventral fins are of a 
 rich purplish tint. The dorsal fin is very large 
 almost disproportionately so and is covered with 
 
 F 
 
66 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 scarlet spots and wavy lines upon a dark ground 
 of reddish-brown. The little velvet back-fin near 
 the tail is also dark brown or purple, and the whole 
 body is shot with violet, copper, and blue re- 
 flexions when seen in different lights. Properly to 
 appreciate this colouring, the fish should be laid 
 horizontally upon the hand to be looked at, in 
 which position its varied tinting is seen to the 
 greatest advantage. 
 
 In addition to its delicate colouring, the Grayling 
 has been supposed to possess a peculiar thymy smell, 
 from which it takes its specific designation. The 
 English name, " Grayling," is probably a modifica- 
 tion of " Grey-lines," in reference to the longitudinal 
 dusky-blue bars with which its body is marked. 
 
 In size Grayling vary according to locality; but 
 they rarely exceed 3 Ibs. in weight, and by far the 
 greater number of those taken are under i Ib. Oc- 
 casionally, however, they are met with of even a 
 larger size than that above named : Mr. T. Lister 
 Parker took three fish in the Avon, near Ring- 
 wood, which together weighed 1 2 Ibs. ; a Grayling 
 of 4 \ Ibs. weight was killed in the Test, and one of 
 5 Ibs. is recorded to have been taken in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Shrewsbury. 
 
 No doubt the possible ultimate growth of the 
 Grayling depends upon the amount and quality of 
 its food, which, besides flies, worms, caterpillars, 
 etc., consists of the larvae of dragon-flies, May-flies, 
 and other ephemera. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 67 
 
 Unlike the rest of its congeners of the Salmon 
 family generally, the Grayling never jumps out of 
 water, and is apparently unable to surmount either 
 natural or artificial obstructions or to stem very 
 rapid torrents, being, in fact, much more prone 
 to going down than up the stream. It has the 
 power, however, of raising itself rapidly to the 
 surface, and of descending again with stone-like 
 velocity a faculty which has been ascribed to the 
 action of the large dorsal fin striking either up- 
 wards or downwards against the current, but which 
 is more probably attributable to the unusual size 
 of the swimming- or air-bladder. 
 
 The eggs are numerous but considerably smaller 
 than those of the Trout, being about the size of 
 partridge-shot, and when viewed in the rays of the 
 sun having very much the colour of the opal. The 
 body of the embryo fish becomes distinctly visible 
 in about nine days, and the egg itself hatches in 
 fourteen or fifteen days from the date of deposit,--- 
 results obtained in the case of the eggs of the 
 Trout in about thirty-five and fifty days respec- 
 tively. 
 
 The spawning-time is in April or the beginning 
 of May, the fish getting into condition in July, and 
 reaching its prime in October and November, 
 when most of the other Salmonidce are going off. 
 The Grayling has, moreover, according to Sir 
 Humphry Davy, the advantage of rarely being so 
 much out of season as to be unfit for food or un- 
 
68 BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 
 
 willing to take a bait if judiciously offered. This 
 author, who has supplied a very fair history of the 
 fish, considered that it might be taken at all times 
 of the year, and that when there were flies in the 
 water it would generally rise to them. 
 
 The specimen from which the illustration is 
 taken, was a beautiful Teme fish about a pound and 
 a half in weight. Its proportions were : The 
 total length of the head, body, and tail-fin, being 
 considered as 5}, the length of the head alone 
 as one. Depth of body for about half its length 
 slightly greater than the length of head ; tail forked. 
 Number of scales in lateral line, 27. 
 
 Further Characteristics of the Grayling (as found in a speci- 
 men 10 inches long). Head small and pointed, flattened at 
 the top. Between point of nose and commencement of first 
 back-fin equal to one-third entire length, tail-fin rays excluded. 
 Back-fin very long at the base, nearly equal to twice the length 
 of its longest ray; pectoral fins long, narrow, and pointed; 
 ventral fins commencing directly under centre of back-fin; 
 anal fin commencing halfway between origin of ventral fins and 
 fleshy part of tail. Opening of mouth when viewed in front 
 squarish ; tetth small, numerous, and curved ; none on tongue, 
 and only a few on end of vomer, or central bone in roof of 
 mouth, and on the adjoining ends of the bones of the palate, 
 situated in single rows on the jaws. Profile of back slightly 
 convex, that of belly nearly straight. Scales large, seven in an 
 oblique row above the lateral line. Vertebrae 58. Colour : sides 
 marked with about 15 dusky longitudinal bands or bars; the 
 general hue becomes darker with age, and about the spawning- 
 season the pectoral fins are reddish with small black spots : for 
 further remarks on colouring see p. 65. 
 
w 
 
 w 
 
THE PIKE. 1 
 
 HE Pike, of which we have only one 
 recognized species in this country and 
 on the Continent, is common to most 
 of the rivers and lakes of Europe and 
 North America, and the Mascalonge (Esox estor] 
 and the Northern Pickerel (Esox lucioides] both 
 inhabitants of the great lakes ; the common Pickerel 
 (Esox reticulatus) indigenous to all the ponds 
 and streams of the Northern and Midland States ; 
 the Pickerel of Long- Island (Esox fasciatus] 
 probably confined to that locality ; the White 
 Pickerel (Esox vittatus), the Black Pickerel (Esox 
 niger), and Esox phaleratus all inhabitants of the 
 Pennsylvanian and Western waters, have been 
 generally recognized as distinct species. Of these 
 the first two are the types, the others following, 
 more or less closely, the same formation as to 
 comparative length of snout, formation of the 
 lower jaw, dental system, gill covers, &c. 
 
 As regards the European Pike, it seems pro- 
 bable that there may be varieties yet to be dis- 
 
 1 Esoxrlutius Esox, a Pike; Indus, the Pike, Latin names. 
 
70 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 covered, as Dr. Genzik, the well-known naturalist 
 of Lintz, informed me that he had found some 
 specimens which had teeth like the fangs of a 
 viper capable of being erected or depressed at 
 pleasure, a circumstance the more remarkable as 
 the jaws also of the Pike are furnished with extra 
 bones to increase the size of its gape, very similar 
 to the corresponding bones in the Viper-con- 
 formation. 
 
 Indigenous in all climates which are not tropical, 
 a chilly or even frigid latitude is apparently essen- 
 tial to the well-being of the Pike. Thus in Nor- 
 way and Sweden, Siberia, and the lakes of Canada 
 and Lapland it reaches its full development, breed- 
 ing in vast numbers, and commonly attaining the 
 length of 4 or 5 feet, whilst it rapidly degenerates 
 on approaching warmer latitudes diminishing in 
 geographical distribution with the spruce fir, and 
 ceasing entirely in the neighbourhood of the 
 Equator. 
 
 Of the numerous names by which the Pike is 
 known the common term " Pike," or " Pickerel," 
 is probably the only one derived from our own 
 language ; and this would appear to have origi- 
 nated in the Saxon word.^>zV/, signifying "sharp- 
 pointed," in reference doubtless to the peculiar 
 form of the Pike's head or possibly teeth ? 
 
 In Sweden the fish is named Gadda, and in 
 Denmark (amongst other variations) Gedde, appa- 
 rently identical with the Lowland Scotch, Gedd, 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 71 
 
 though spelt somewhat differently. M. Valen- 
 ciennes has published a long list of the names 
 which the fish , bears amongst the Sclavonic and 
 Tartar races, but none of them seem to have any 
 relation to those by which it is known on the 
 western coasts of Europe. 
 
 The Pike is the Brocket of the French, by whom 
 it is also called Brocheton, Lance or Lanceron, and 
 Becquet the last having reference doubtless to 
 the flattened or duck-bill-like form of the muzzle. 
 
 The ancient classical name of the Pike was 
 Lucius? under which it is mentioned by several 
 old writers ; and from this root have doubtless 
 sprung the terms Luce or Lucie (the " White 
 Lucie" of Shakespeare and of heraldry), as well 
 as the Liiccio or Luzzo of the Italians. 
 
 To the ancient Greeks, so far as we are aware, 
 the Pike was a stranger ; or if known, has escaped 
 notice in the writings of Aristotle. In the works 
 of several Latin authors it is mentioned, and is 
 stated to have been taken of very great size in the 
 Tiber ; but it has been doubted by naturalists 
 whether this fish the Esox of Pliny is synony- 
 mous with the Esox, or Pike, of modern ichthyology. 
 
 1 Nobbes suggests that the name Lucius is derived " either 
 a lucendo, from ' shining in the waters,' or else (which is more 
 probable) from Lukos, the Greek word for luptts : for as," says 
 he, " the wolf is the most ravenous and cruel amongst beasts, so 
 the Pike is the most greedy and devouring among fishes. So 
 that Lupus Pisa's, though it be proper for the Sea-wolf, yet it 
 is often used for the Pike itself, the Fresh-water Wolf." 
 
72 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 Ausonius, however, living about the middle of the 
 fourth century, clearly alludes to the Pike in his 
 well-known lines : 
 
 " Lucius obscurus ulva lacunas 
 
 Obsidet. Hie, nullos mensarum lectus ad usus, 
 
 Fumat fumosis olido nidore popinis." 
 
 The age to which the Pike will attain has been 
 always a debated point amongst naturalists. Pen- 
 nant mentions one ninety years old. Pliny con- 
 sidered it as the longest-lived, and likely to reach 
 the greatest age, of any fresh-water fish ; while 
 Sir Francis Bacon, agreeing in this view, yet 
 limited its probable maximum to forty years. 
 
 In natural connexion with this part of the sub- 
 ject the limit of age in the Pike occurs that of 
 its probable growth and size when suffered to 
 attain to full development. It has been the 
 custom amongst modern writers to affect a civil 
 disbelief in the accounts of very large Pike handed 
 down to us by numerous credible witnesses ; and 
 the prevailing impression appears to be that a 
 weight of 30 or 40 Ibs. is about the real maximum 
 attained. I could easily refer, however, to many 
 attested examples of Pike having been taken in 
 the British Islands up to the weight of 70, 80, and 
 even 90 Ibs. ; but a single instance, too well au- 
 thenticated to admit of doubt, will suffice. I refer 
 to the case of the Kenmure Pike mentioned also 
 by Daniel in his " Rural Sports," and by Dr. 
 Grierson and other authors the weight of which 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 73 
 
 was 72 Ibs. It was taken in Loch Ken, Galloway, 
 a sheet of water belonging to the Castle of Ken- 
 mure, where the head of the fish is still preserved, 
 and may be seen by any one sufficiently curious 
 or sceptical to desire ocular demonstration. To 
 give a general idea of the size of the Pike, I 
 may quote one measurement that across the 
 back of the head, the width of which was nine 
 inches. 
 
 Dr. Genzik, who gave me some valuable in- 
 formation concerning the Continental Pike, states 
 that, in the fish-markets of Vienna, Lintz, and 
 Munich, Pike are not unfrequently exposed for 
 sale of 80 and 90 Ibs. weight and upwards, that 
 the fishermen on the Danube, near Strudel and 
 Wirbel, have legends of specimens 1 5 and 20 feet 
 long, which break through all their nets, and 
 that at Traunkirchen, on the Gmlinden Water, 
 there are still living some fishermen who declare 
 that on one occasion when dragging the lake they 
 enclosed a Pike longer than either of their boats, 
 and that they began, as they expressed it, " to say 
 their prayers, thinking the enemy was on their 
 nets ; the Pike, however, with one spring, jumped 
 over the nearest boat and escaped " ! 
 
 At Oberneukirchen Dr. Genzik himself saw a 
 Pike taken out of a large tank or preserve, which 
 after being cleaned, weighed 97 Ibs. and some 
 ounces ; and an officer of Tyrolese Rifles informed 
 him that whilst at Bregentz during the past au- 
 
74 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 tumn (1862), he was present when a Pike was 
 caught weighing upwards of 145 Ibs. 
 
 After this we may be inclined to give more 
 credence to Bloch's statement that he once exa- 
 mined a portion of the skeleton of a specimen 
 which measured eight feet. 
 
 The rate of growth of the Pike has been by 
 different authors variously estimated at from i to 
 5 Ibs. a year; but these estimates do not, generally, 
 appear to be based on any very reliable grounds, 
 still less upon actual experiment, and therefore go 
 but a little way towards advancing our knowledge 
 of the subject. My own experience leads me to 
 believe that the growth-rate is susceptible of very 
 great variation, depending upon the nature of the 
 water and the amount of food supplied to the 
 fish, but that in the open waters at least in Eng- 
 land ^it seldom averages more than i Ib. a year 
 during the first two years, and from j-J to 2 Ibs. a 
 year afterwards, decreasing again after eight or 
 nine years to about the original ratio. This ave- 
 rage cannot, of course, be taken as any index of 
 what may be done by keeping Pike in rich pre- 
 serves or fattening them in stews, as the capacity 
 of the Pike for food is well nigh inexhaustible, and 
 is in analogy with its digestion the marvellous 
 rapidity of which has been aptly described as re- 
 sembling the action of fire. 
 
 Of one point, however, I have fully convinced 
 myself, viz. that during the first year the maximum 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 75 
 
 growth, in open waters, does not much exceed 
 half a pound. The grounds of this conclusion are 
 briefly as follow : Pike spawn in March or April : 
 in' June, when Pike-fishing commences, I have 
 not unfrequently taken, and seen taken, with 
 the net, small Jack of about an ounce, or a little 
 more, in weight ; in September, again, I have 
 constantly taken them, with a minnow, of three or 
 four ounces ; and in January and February speci- 
 mens of from Jive to seven oitnces ; whilst I have 
 never within my memory caught the smaller-sized 
 fish at the later periods, or vice versa, thus point- 
 ing clearly to the inference that at these seasons 
 there were young Jack of those respective sizes, 
 and none others in other words, that the different 
 sizes represented the different stages of growth. 
 These I believe to be the fish of about f Ib. of 
 the following season. 
 
 The Pike is a true cosmopolitan in his feeding. 
 Fish, flesh, and fowl are alike acceptable to him. 
 Animal, mineral, and vegetable his rapacity de- 
 vours them all. Lord Walsingham writes to me 
 that he once caught a pike with a hare's foot, and 
 on another occasion with a dead rat! Nothing, in 
 short, that he can by any means get into his 
 stomach comes amiss to him ; and imperial man 
 himself has on more than one occasion narrowly 
 escaped being laid under contribution to his larder. 
 His own species enjoy no immunity from this uni- 
 versal rapacity ; on the contrary, it has been asserted 
 
76 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 that more young Jack are destroyed by their own 
 parents than by any or perhaps all other enemies 
 put together. 
 
 A remarkable instance of this characteristic 
 propensity was communicated to me by Mr. L 
 of Chippenham, Wiltshire, to whom the incident 
 occurred. This gentleman had set a trimmer in 
 the River Avon over night, and on proceeding 
 the next morning to take it up he found a heavy 
 Pike apparently fast upon his hooks. In order to 
 extract these he was obliged to open the fish, and 
 in doing so perceived another Pike of considerable 
 size inside the first, from the mouth of which the 
 .line proceeded. This fish it was also found neces- 
 sary to open ; when, extraordinary to state, a 
 third Pike of about -J Ib. weight and already 
 partly digested was discovered in the stomach of 
 the second ! 
 
 Of the indiscriminating character of the Pike's 
 appetite a more apt illustration could not perhaps 
 be given than the following, kindly communicated 
 to me by Lord Walsingham, who is himself an en- 
 thusiastic angler and a close observer of nature : 
 " A newly cut ash-pole, with the bark peeled off 
 for a few inches at the small end, was lying across 
 the punt in which I was fishing, the pole was some- 
 what bent, and owing to the wind and my move- 
 ments in the boat, the end frequently dipped in 
 the water. A Pike dashed at it and seized it, 
 leaving the marks of his teeth distinctly visible in 
 the wood." 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 77 
 
 Another amusing instance was related to me by 
 an eye-witness : Upon a piece of water belonging 
 to Wandle House, Wands worth, some toy vessels 
 were being sailed, at the stern of one of which was 
 attached a small boat fancifully decorated with 
 green and gilding. As the little craft swept 
 briskly across the pool, with her boat in tow, a 
 Pike suddenly darted from the water and seized 
 the boat in his jaws, well nigh capsizing the whole 
 flotilla in his efforts to drag his capture to the 
 bottom. To this task, however, his strength was 
 apparently unequal, and a fresh breeze springing 
 up, the submerged nautilus reappeared on the 
 surface and continued her voyage, but had hardly 
 got fairly under way when the Pike again dashed 
 forward to the attack, seizing her as before, and 
 repeating the performance until the boat grounded 
 on the opposite bank. 
 
 It has been mentioned that in rare instances 
 and when under the influence of either extreme 
 anger or hunger, Pike have been very clearly con- 
 victed of attempted manslaughter. Such being 
 the case, it is hardly necessary to say that it is by 
 no means uncommon for animals, often of large 
 size, to be similarly attacked, and, in the case of 
 the smaller species, devoured, by this fish. Ac- 
 counts are on record of otters, dogs, mules, oxen, 
 and even horses being assaulted. Poultry are 
 constantly destroyed by the Pike, " the dwellers 
 in the ' Eely place,'" as Hood punningly says, 
 
7 8 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 " having come to Picc-a-dilly." I have seen a 
 Pike take a pigeon that I had myself shot from 
 a pontoon at the Welsh Harp the circumstance 
 indeed was witnessed by a number of people. Lord 
 Walsingham writes to me : " Partridge shooting 
 near a large piece of water I wounded, late in 
 the evening, a bird, which flew in the direction of 
 the water ; the next day I was Pike fishing, and 
 about fifty yards from the land, just opposite where 
 the wounded bird must have reached the water, I 
 caught a Pike of about 8 Ibs. with a partridge in his 
 stomach undoubtedly my bird. I discovered it 
 by seeing feathers sticking out of his throat while 
 extracting the hooks." Sometimes the heads of 
 swans diving for food encounter instead the ever- 
 open jaws of this fish, and both are killed ; 
 whilst among the frogs he is the very " King 
 Stork" of the fable. He will even seize that most 
 unsavoury of all morsels, the toad, although in this 
 case the inherent nauseousness of the animal saves 
 it from being actually swallowed, its skin, like 
 that of the lizard, containing a white highly acid 
 secretion which is exuded from small glands dis- 
 persed over the body. 
 
 Pike will attack both the land- and water-rat ; 
 occasionally pouching them, but more frequently 
 treating them as in the case of the toad, a fact 
 confirmed by Captain Williamson, who adds : " But 
 whether owing to the resistance that animal (the 
 rat) makes, which I have witnessed to be very 
 

 OF GREAT BRITAIN. 79 
 
 fierce and that under water too or whether 
 owing to the hair or scent displeasing them, I know 
 not ; but they do not appear to be very partial to 
 the quadruped." 
 
 Sometimes the Pike lies in ambush, protruding 
 only its eyes and grim muzzle through the weeds, 
 when the movement of seizing a victim is little 
 beyond a quick turn of the body and an opening 
 and shutting of the jaws ; but generally he takes 
 his prey with a rush and a flash, emerging so sud- 
 denly and with such startling energy, that I have, 
 in more than one instance, known a Troller lite- 
 rally drop his rod from the effects of sheer terror. 
 
 Woe to the fish or flesh that gets once fairly 
 enclosed between the jaws of a Pike ! From that 
 more than Regulus-like incarceration it rarely 
 effects its escape. Like the Remora, which will 
 allow itself to be cut to pieces rather than relinquish 
 its hold, the Pike exhibits an extraordinary tenacity 
 of purpose and reluctance to quit its grasp of a 
 prey once seized. 
 
 A Pike will even constantly make a considerable 
 fight, and actually allow itself to be dragged many 
 yards by the obstinacy of its hold, without ever 
 having been pricked by a hook shaking the bait 
 out of its mouth perhaps when almost in the net. 
 I have witnessed the same thing to occur with 
 a cork ball tied to a string and drawn across a 
 stock-pond. 
 
 This mixture of determination and ferocity 
 
8o THE SPORTING FJSH 
 
 makes the Pike the undisputed master of our fresh 
 waters, although it has been asserted that, from its 
 superior momentum, a Trout or Salmon of equal 
 weight would have the advantage in a pitched 
 battle. I doubt it much. What chance these fish 
 have against the Pike is shown by the effect of 
 introducing the latter into trouting and salmon 
 waters, where the new-comer speedily dispossesses 
 the rightful tenants. Witness, for instance, the 
 ravages committed in the Canterbury River, in 
 the Wandle, in the Colne near Draycot and Cow- 
 ley, in the Teviot, and in Lochs Katrine, Lomond, 
 Awe, and Jurit in Scotland ; and the same thing is 
 known to have taken place in many of the best 
 Irish waters, where the Pike is still continuing to 
 spread and multiply, displacing by degrees the 
 Trout and other indigenous races. 
 
 Indeed, how Pike spread is a problem which it 
 has perplexed naturalists to explain. A stream, or 
 pond, or loch, reserved perhaps for centuries to 
 the docile phlegmatic Carp, or " star-stoled Trout," 
 suddenly begins to show symptoms of a falling off; 
 the next year matters are worse ; the water is 
 dragged, and the first fish to come up in the net is 
 probably a Pike. How the Pike came there, or 
 who put it there, remains unexplained ; but the 
 cause of the depletion of the water is no longer a 
 mystery. Some authors have accounted for these 
 singular immigrations by supposing that the Pike, 
 like the Eel, actually travels overland in wet 
 

 OF GREAT BRITAIN. 81 
 
 weather from one pond to another ; and several 
 curious circumstances, which have come to my 
 knowledge, would appear to lend some colour to 
 the supposition. 
 
 In order to test the migratory theory, Mr. 
 Newenham, an English resident at Antwerp, had 
 two small ponds excavated near together, and 
 stocked one with Pike, and the other with small 
 Roach, Dace, &c. At the end of the second day he 
 caused both ponds to be emptied, when it was found 
 that several of the Pike from pond No. i had made 
 their way by some means into pond No. 2, and 
 had destroyed a great part of the fry. 
 
 A singular fact, pointing indirectly to the same 
 conclusion, once came under my own observation. 
 A pool five or six yards square, for the reception 
 of small fish, had been constructed close to a stew- 
 pond containing Pike ; the work had been finished 
 in the afternoon, and the pond left to fill. On 
 visiting it the next morning, I was surprised to find 
 it already occupied by a Jack of about | Ib. weight, 
 which had contrived thus early to take possession. 
 
 The sudden appearance of Pike at certain times 
 is not less remarkable than their unaccountable 
 disappearance at others. There is no doubt that 
 in seasons of great heat or unusual drought, when 
 ponds or reservoirs have become rapidly dried up, 
 the Pike that were in them have vanished in a 
 very extraordinary manner, and that upon the 
 return of the water they have been immediately 
 
 G 
 
82 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 found in apparently undiminished numbers a 
 phenomenon, however, by no means confined to 
 Esocida, as the same thing has been observed with 
 regard to Carp and Tench; and Eels it is well 
 known frequently make comparatively long jour- 
 neys " overland." 
 
 Although from its vigorous and unsparing de- 
 structiveness the Pike has many detractors and few 
 apologists, it must not be supposed that it is alto- 
 gether without any of the softer instincts. On the 
 contrary, it has been known to exhibit under par- 
 ticular circumstances a very decided amount of 
 friendship, and even affection, especially in the 
 conjugal form. The " one virtue," however, to 
 which, amongst a thousand crimes, the name of the 
 Pike has been specially linked is gratitude : it has 
 been asserted that he never attacks his physician, 
 the Tench. To this subject I have referred in 
 the notice of the latter fish. 
 
 The haunts of Pike vary considerably at diffe- 
 rent times of the year, and also vary with the 
 nature of particular waters ; but it usually prefers a 
 still, unfrequented spot, plentifully supplied with 
 weeds and flags, selecting if possible a gravelly or 
 sandy bottom. The neighbourhoods of reeds, 
 docks, bulrushes, and the broad-leaved water-lily 
 are its favourite resorts ; and of these, a flooring of 
 lilies, with from four to six feet of quiet current 
 over it, and a wall of reeds at the side, springing 
 from the bottom, is the best 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 83 
 
 " A league of grass washed by a slow broad stream 
 That, stirr'd with languid pulses of the oar, 
 Waves all its lazy lilies and creeps on. ..." 
 
 Indeed, it may be said that the reed and the lily 
 are to the Pike what the hollybush is to the wood- 
 cock. In lochs and meres it commonly frequents 
 the most shoal and weedy parts, small inlets and 
 little bays, or the mouths of streams where minnows 
 or other fry congregate ; and in rivers, back- waters 
 and dam-heads, eddies between two streams, or in 
 fact any water that is weedy, of moderate depth, 
 and not too much acted upon .by the current. As a 
 general rule, Pike will be found during the summer 
 in or close upon the streams, and in winter, after 
 the first heavy flood, in the large eddies and deeps. 
 At the latter season the fish feed best about mid- 
 day, with a breeze and a warm sun ; and in the 
 summer months at morning and evening with a 
 cloudy sky and plenty of wind. A hot, sultry day 
 is always inimical to success in Pike-fishing ; as also 
 a muddy or flooded state of the water : a full 
 water, however, if not discoloured, is very favour- 
 able. 
 
 When in high season, the general colour of the 
 Pike is green spotted with bright yellow, whilst 
 the gills are of a vivid red ; when out of season 
 the green changes to a greyer tint, and the yellow 
 spots become pale. It spawns about March or 
 April, according to the climate, forwardness of the 
 spring, and other local circumstances, the young 
 
8 4 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 females of three or four years old taking the lead 
 and the dowagers following. For this purpose 
 they quit the open waters in pairs, and retire into 
 the fens, ditches, or shallows, where they deposit 
 their spawn amongst the leaves of aquatic plants ; 
 and during this period the male may often be ob- 
 served following the female about from place to 
 place, and attending upon her with much apparent 
 solicitude. As many as 80,000 eggs have been 
 counted in one fish. When the spawning-process 
 is complete the fish return again into the rivers, 
 and are then for some weeks in a state of partial 
 stupefaction, and unfit for food. In streams they 
 begin to be in condition again about June, and are 
 in their best season in November; but in still 
 waters the recuperative process is much slower. 
 
 Characteristics of the Pike Family. Head depressed, large, 
 oblong, blunt. Body elongated, rounded on the back ; sides 
 compressed, covered with scales. Dorsal fin placed very far 
 back, over anal fin. Jaws, palatine bones, and vomer furnished 
 with teeth of various sizes. 
 
 Principal Characteristics of the common Pike. Body elon- 
 gated, nearly uniform in depth from head to commencement of 
 back-fin, then becoming narrower; body covered with small 
 scales ) lateral line indistinct. Length of head compared to total 
 length of head, body, and tail, as i to 4. Back- and anal fins 
 placed very far back, nearly opposite each other. From point of 
 nose to origin of pectoral-fin, thence to origin of ventral fin, and 
 thence to commencement of anal fin are three nearly equal dis- 
 tances. Pectoral and ventral fins small ; rays of anal fin elongated. 
 Tail somewhat forked. Shape of head long, flattened, and wide ; 
 gape extensive. Lower jaw longest, with numerous small teeth 
 round the front. The sides with five or six very large and sharp 
 
I 
 OF GREAT BRITAIN. 85 
 
 teeth on each side. Upper jaw somewhat duck-billed. Teeth 
 on vomer small ; on the palatine bones larger and longer, parti- 
 cularly on the inner edges : none on superior maxillary bones. 
 Head covered with mucous orifices placed in pairs. Cheeks 
 and upper parts of gill-covers covered with scales. Colour of 
 head and upper part of back dusky olive-brown, growing lighter 
 and mottled with green and yellow on sides, passing into silvery 
 white on belly ; pectoral and ventral fins pale brown ; back-, 
 anal-, and tail-fins darker brown, mottled with white, yellow, and 
 dark green. 
 
THE PERCH. 1 
 
 UVIER has taken the Perch as the 
 type of his leading genus. In other 
 words, it is the first Species, of the first 
 Genus, of the first family, of the first 
 Order, of the first Series of fish in his systematic 
 classification. In the present essay, however, I 
 have found it on the whole more convenient not to 
 adopt the strictly ichthyological sequence in re- 
 ferring to the different species of sporting fish, and 
 the Perch here takes his place not according to 
 family ' descent,' but as naturally following after the 
 Pike, with which in actual sport he is so constantly 
 associated. 
 
 The Perch the common Perch of our ponds and 
 rivers is very generally distributed over almost 
 the whole of Europe and Great Britain, and is one 
 of the most generally recognized inhabitants of 
 English waters from the Tweed to the Land's 
 End. In Wales it is a somewhat local fish, and 
 confined principally to stagnant waters; in Ireland 
 more widely diffused, though still in distribution 
 
 1 Percafluviatilis. Perca, the Perch ; fluviatilis^ of the river, 
 Lat. 
 


 
 
 

 'o 
 
BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 87 
 
 rather unequal ; in Scotland very general south of 
 the Frith of Forth and comparatively rare to the 
 north of it, ceasing entirely amongst the innumer- 
 able waters of Sutherland and Ross, or, where 
 observed, owing its introduction to very recent 
 times. 
 
 Of the British Perch, so far as my experience 
 extends, the Thames produces the best in the 
 matter of quality ; Windermere, and Slapton Ley, 
 in Devonshire, the greatest show as to quantity ; 
 and the Kennet from Hungerford to Reading, or 
 perhaps the Avon below Sommerley, the finest 
 specimens for general size and weight. The num- 
 bers of Perch in Windermere and Slapton Ley are 
 almost incredible : but their size is commonly in- 
 significant. 
 
 The Perch of the Thames, which is also notice- 
 able for its fine colouring, probably owes its supe- 
 rior gastronomic attractions to the great purity of 
 the stream above locks as well as to the wide 
 range in the choice of food, spawning-ground, &c., 
 which it affords ; but in whatever waters the fish 
 is bred it is seldom other than palatable as well 
 as wholesome, and it is on this account a frequent 
 item in the invalid's dietary. " More wholesome 
 than a Pearch of Rhine," says a German proverb 
 mentioned by Izaak Walton, who also quotes a 
 learned authority to the effect that it possesses a 
 small stone in the head thought to be very " medi- 
 cinable." 
 
88 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 The Perch selected for illustration was a Kennet 
 fish of 3 Ibs. weight one of the most perfectly 
 shaped specimens that I ever met with. 
 
 The Perch lives long out of water (resembling 
 in that respect Carp and Tench), and if carried 
 with care and occasionally moistened will, in cold 
 weather, exist for several hours in this condition. 
 Yarrell says that Perch are constantly exhibited in 
 the markets of Catholic countries, where doubt- 
 less they are a popular article of " fast ;" and that 
 on these occasions, when not sold, they are taken 
 back to the ponds from which they came to be re- 
 marketed at another opportunity. 
 
 The size to which the Perch will attain is some- 
 what doubtful. The largest specimen that I ever 
 remember to have met with was preserved in a 
 small inn in Perthshire. It was very imperfectly 
 stuffed, and had no doubt shrunk considerably in 
 the operation ; but the label stated that it weighed 
 7 Ibs. when caught, and from its appearance it cer- 
 tainly could not have weighed less than five or six. 
 Perch of 2 and 3 Ibs. are by no means uncommon, 
 and specimens of even 4 Ibs. are probably less rare 
 than may be supposed. Such fish have been taken 
 in the Pen Ponds, Richmond Park ; and Pennant 
 records the capture of one in the Serpentine which 
 weighed 8 Ibs. Donovan speaks of a Perch of 
 5 Ibs., caught in Bala Lake. One of 6 Ibs. was 
 taken by Mr. Hunt, of Brades, Staffordshire, from 
 the Birmingham Canal ; and two fish of 8 Ibs. each 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 89 
 
 are stated to have been caught, the one in the 
 Wiltshire Avon, and the other in Dagenham 
 Reach, Essex. One is recorded by Izaak Walton 
 as having been taken by a friend, which measured 
 two feet in length ; and in the " Sure Angler's 
 Guide," the author says that he saw the figure of 
 a Perch drawn in pencil on the door of a house 
 near Oxford, which was twenty-nine inches long, 
 and he was informed that it was the outline of a 
 living fish. 
 
 It is not probable, however, that either of these 
 sizes represents the maximum attainable by the 
 Perch under favourable circumstances, even in 
 British waters ; and it probably reaches a much 
 greater weight in Scandinavia and other northern 
 countries. The Danube breeds enormous Perch ; 
 and in the Church of Lulea, Lapland, the head of 
 one is preserved which is nearly a foot long - 
 giving the entire length of the fish at somewhere 
 about 3^ feet. 
 
 After the Pike, the Perch is the most absolutely 
 fearless of our sporting fish, often following a bait 
 up to the very surface of the water or side of the 
 boat, when with jaws open and spines erect he 
 presents a really splendid appearance. He will 
 often remain thus for several instants bristling like 
 a porcupine, as if threatening reprisals on those 
 who have baulked him of his prey retiring at 
 length in sullen wrath with his face still turned 
 towards his assailants. 
 
9 o THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 How far the spines of the Perch protect him 
 from the assaults of other fish especially of the 
 Pike is not quite certain. In many fishings both 
 in England and Scotland small Perch are consi- 
 dered the favourite baits for the Pike, which does 
 not seem to be at all deterred by their spiky ap- 
 pearance. Moreover, as the Pike always swallows 
 his prey head-foremost, whilst the spines of the 
 Perch are capable only of projecting backwards 
 shutting down like the props of an umbrella upon 
 pressure from in front it would appear that they 
 ought rather to assist than impede the operation of 
 swallowing. 
 
 The favourite food of the Perch consists of min- 
 nows, of which he can devour an extraordinary 
 number ; but failing these, any small fry, worms 
 (especially brandlings), insects, frogs, caterpillars, 
 and grubs of all sorts are good baits. 
 
 The extent to which he will gorge himself with 
 minnows may be judged by the fact within the 
 knowledge of most anglers that when he has 
 filled his stomach so that he can positively swallow 
 no more, he will still endeavour to bite and, if pos- 
 sible, masticate others ; and it is by no means un- 
 common under these circumstances to hook and 
 capture a Perch with the tails of the minnows which 
 he has already partially swallowed, and been unable 
 to pouch, protruding from his gullet ! From this 
 it may be inferred that fish, like many other 
 animals including man himself, in the first degree 
 
OF GREA T BRITAIN. g i 
 
 find a gratification in the exercise of their pre- 
 datory instincts even when the appetite of hunger 
 has been fully satiated. 
 
 Although having, it will thus be seen, the 
 bump of destructiveness very liberally developed, 
 Perch are by no means difficult to tame : Mr. Jesse 
 succeeded, after a few days only, in inducing them 
 to feed from his hand. Bloch mentions having 
 watched them depositing their ova in a vessel kept 
 in his own room ; and I was informed by Mr. 
 Bartlett, the eminent and indefatigable Superin- 
 tendent of the Zoological Gardens in Regent's 
 Park, that the Perch in the aquarium there in- 
 crease their numbers by an annual shoal of young 
 fry which are hatched and reared under the eyes 
 of hundreds of visitors. 
 
 A comical anecdote turning upon this faculty 
 of ready acclimatization is related by the author of 
 " Fishes and Fishing." A country gentleman, in 
 order to add to the usual attractions of a Christmas 
 visit, offered a London friend of piscatorial ten- 
 dencies the temptation of a "day's fishing in his 
 private water." The sportsman arrived, with a 
 good assortment of rods, lines, &c., and was all- 
 impatient to be at his work. After lunch his host in- 
 troduced the visitor to " his water" which proved 
 to be an ornamental basin, in width about equal 
 to the length of one of the rods the angler had 
 brought with him. The chagrin and disappoint- 
 ment of the latter may be imagined ; but upon the 
 
92 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 assurance that there really were fish in the pond, 
 he put his tackle together and adjusted a bait. It 
 had hardly touched the water before he hooked 
 and landed a fine Perch ; another and another fol- 
 lowed, and by the time his friend came to summon 
 him to dinner he had thirty-five fish in his basket. 
 "Well," said his host, " I am glad you have had 
 such sport ; I caused three dozen to be put in the 
 day before yesterday." " Indeed ?" was the reply, 
 "then I will go back and catch the thirty-sixth 
 after dinner." 
 
 Though attaining their greatest perfection in 
 clear, sharp streams, Perch thrive well on clayey 
 or sandy bottoms, preferring generally a water of 
 a moderate depth and current, and frequenting 
 holes, mill-dams, hollow banks, and, in summer, 
 the under-currents of weirs. In winter their fa- 
 vourite haunts are back-waters and eddies ; and at 
 this time of the year they feed best about the 
 middle of the day, more particularly if bright and 
 warm. They usually swim in large shoals. Their 
 spawning season is at the end of April or the be- 
 ginning of May ; and so prolific are they, that a 
 specimen weighing half a pound has been found to 
 contain 280,000 ova. The eggs are deposited in 
 strings which hang about the weeds and rocks, and 
 when seen through a bright sunlight present a 
 beautiful appearance almost resembling festoons 
 of pearls. 
 
 Of the Perch family only two fresh-water species 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 93 
 
 are known to exist in this country, the common 
 Perch, and the Ruffe or Pope ; the latter of little 
 interest either for sport or for the table. 
 
 The characteristics known to all the Percidce are : Fin- 
 rays partly spinous and partly flexible. Body oblong, and 
 covered with hard or rough scales. Bones of the gill-covers 
 variously armed at the edges with notches or spinous points. 
 Most of the species composing this family have the ventral fins 
 under the pectoral. 
 
 Principal Characteristics of the Perch. The whole length of 
 the fish, head, body, and tail-finbeing considered as i, the 
 length of the head alone, to the point of the gill-cover, is about 
 3i : depth of body at the deepest point as nearly as possible 
 equal to length of head; nape of neck and shoulder rising 
 very abruptly, giving a general appearance of the fish being 
 rather " hog-backed ;" belly-line less convex. Fleshy portion 
 of tail very slender. Tail-fin rather small. Two back-fins, the 
 first supported by strong pointed bony rays fourteen in number ; 
 the second back-fin having sixteen soft rays, and commencing 
 very nearly over the anal fin : the commencement of the first 
 dorsal, pectoral, and ventral fins, very nearly in a line, slanting 
 slightly backwards towards the belly ; and the pectoral-fin com- 
 mencing a very little more forward than the point of gill-cover. 
 Colour : muzzle dark brownish green ; irides, cheeks, and gill- 
 covers, a greenish bronze ; pectoral-fins nearly yellow of a 
 lightish tint; pectoral, anal, and tail fins, brilliant scarlet; 
 second back-fin greenish, with a slight tinge of scarlet or orange. 
 Back dark olive green, becoming nearly brown in large speci- 
 mens ; sides golden yellow marked with dark transverse bars of 
 a greenish colour : belly from muzzle to tail quite white. Scales 
 in lateral line about sixty-six. Lateral line convex. 
 
THE COMMON CARP. 1 
 
 H E family of Carps (Cyprmidcz) belongs 
 to the first Order of fishes, Malacop- 
 terygii, or those having almost all their 
 fin-rays soft and flexible, and the genus 
 Cyprimis, or true Carps (the first genus of this 
 family), are distinguished by the body being 
 always covered with large scales ; a single long 
 back-fin ; the lips fleshy ; mouth small ; teeth in the 
 throat, but none in the jaws ; and three gill-rays. 
 To the family Cyprinidce belong no less than 
 twenty-two species found by ichthyologists in our 
 fresh waters; including the Roach, Dace, Chub, 
 Barbel, and Bream, constituting some of the most 
 prominent of the so-called " coarse fish," regarded 
 as objects of interest from the sportsman's point of 
 view. 
 
 The common Carp is the typical fish, and there- 
 fore occupies first place in right of precedence 
 ichthyological. The specimen selected for illustra- 
 tion was taken from the Obelisk ponds in Windsor 
 
 1 Cyprimts carpio. Cyprinus, a Carp ; carpio, the Carp, Lat. 
 


 
 
o 
 
 o 
 o 
 
BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 95 
 
 Great Park, which, with the adjacent preserves, 
 have been for centuries famous for their Carp. I was 
 informed by Mr. Frank Buckland, to whose kind- 
 ness I was indebted for the opportunity of giving 
 a representation of this fish, that on the occasion 
 of its being captured, a series of five ponds near 
 Cumberland Lodge were allowed to be run dry 
 for the purpose of getting rid of the Jack. When 
 the lowest pond the Obelisk was nearly empty 
 the nets were put in, and from a conversation with 
 Mr. Buckland on his return from Windsor I learnt 
 some interesting particulars demonstrated by the 
 result of the netting as to the growth-rate, &c., of 
 the Carp in this and the other waters in Windsor 
 Park. It was remarked as a singular circumstance 
 that nearly all the Carp taken from the Obelisk 
 pond were of a very similar weight, viz., from 4 Ibs. 
 to 6 Ibs., none of them being of an unusual size, as 
 was anticipated. Wheeler, Her Majesty's head 
 fisherman, informed Mr. Buckland that he knew 
 these Obelisk Carp to be fifty years old at least. 
 They had been twice removed within his memory 
 from the different ponds, the last time about thirty- 
 five years before from a pond near Cumberland 
 Lodge, when they weighed about 3 Ibs. each. 
 Their subsequent growth-rate therefore could not 
 have averaged more than about an ounce a year. 
 
 It appears that some of the Windsor ponds are 
 very much better suited to the growth, that is to 
 the feeding, of Carp than others ; thus, for in- 
 
96 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 stance, Mr. Buckland was shown in the Royal 
 Stew two Carp, brother and sister to those in the 
 Obelisk pond, and of which the largest turned the 
 scale at loj Ibs. having thus attained a size 
 nearly double that of its less favourably situated 
 relatives. This fish I examined. It had the 
 appearance of being afflicted with an immense 
 tumour in its abdomen, which the fisherman gave 
 it as his opinion was caused by a detention of the 
 eggs a by no means uncommon occurrence ac- 
 cording to his experience with very old Carp, 
 " which were always bad breeders, and frequently 
 retained their eggs for years." This opinion expe- 
 riment proved to be correct, as, on making a post 
 mortem dissection, three different sets of eggs, 
 packed upon one another, were found, those 
 nearest the vent being of a white lustrous colour, 
 and ready to be shed. They were of the usual 
 size of Carp eggs. The other two sets of ova 
 had, judging from their appearance, arrived almost 
 at perfection in former years, but had never been 
 shed. They were matted together inside the fish 
 in a solid mass, presenting the aspect called in 
 medical phraseology " Hepatization." 
 
 Although a slow-growing, the Carp is a very 
 long-lived fish the longest-lived, probably, of any 
 fresh-water species a hundred, a hundred and 
 fifty, even two hundred years having been claimed 
 as the term of its existence, when favourably si- 
 tuated. Admitting, however, that this last may 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 97 
 
 probably be an exaggeration, there is no doubt 
 that many of these fish introduced into the ponds at 
 Versailles, &c., during the reign of Louis the Four- 
 teenth (say 1 690) are either still living or were so but 
 a short time before the Revolution of 1830. Dr. 
 Smith, in his " Tour to the Continent," mentions 
 them, and observes that they had grown white 
 through age. Valenciennes refers to others in the 
 Tuileries, which would also come when called by 
 their names ; and Buffon assures us that he had 
 seen, in the fosses of the Ponchartrain, Carp which 
 were known to be upwards of a century and a half 
 old. 
 
 A reviewer in the "Athenaeum" of the 8th of 
 August, 1863, gives the following comical account 
 of the Fontainbleau Carp : 
 
 "Visitors to Fontainbleau will doubtless remem- 
 ber the lake adjoining the palace and its large 
 Carp population, numbering many of the most 
 ancient of that family in Europe. To those who 
 have never been at Fontainbleau we may state 
 that the lake swarms with these fish, of all ages 
 and sizes, and that it is the custom of visitors to 
 feed them with bread ; but as ordinary bread would 
 disappear in a moment among the hungry shoal, a 
 plan has been devised to give the visitors more 
 amusement by using balls of bread, about the size 
 of a man's fist, baked to a biscuit-like hardness. 
 On casting one of these balls into the lake, it is 
 immediately surrounded by scores of Carp, hungry 
 
 ii 
 
98 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 youngsters for the most part, which being appa- 
 rently aware that they cannot possibly devour the 
 food in its hard and unbroken condition, proceed 
 with wonderful unanimity to push it with their 
 snouts to the nearest part of the stone wall con- 
 fining the lake. Against this they continue butting 
 it violently, until at length the repeated blows, and 
 the softening effect of the water, cause the ball to 
 break ; when, just at the moment that it is in a fit 
 state to be eaten, some half dozen enormous Carp, 
 white with age, which have been watching the 
 proceedings with evident interest, shoulder away 
 the young workers, who retire with great precipi- 
 tation, while the tyrants of the lake gobble or 
 rather suck in the pabulum which has cost the 
 small carp so much trouble to render fit for their 
 eating. It is the old story of might against right, 
 and as we have often witnessed what we have de- 
 scribed, we have no doubt that old Carp are as wily 
 as ancient foxes." 
 
 This gentleman, it will be observed, confirms 
 Dr. Smith's statement as to the fact of Carp be- 
 coming gradually white from old age ; and it is a 
 curious fact that great age and exclusion from the 
 light produce apparently the same effects both on 
 fish and other animals the skin or scales under- 
 going a sort of bleaching process, either from a 
 gradual drying up of the invigorating juices of the 
 body, or from the want of the sun's rays. In the 
 case of fish and reptiles whitened by exclusion 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 99 
 
 from the light, it is an almost universal rule that 
 the eyes are so much undeveloped as to produce 
 total blindness. The fish taken in the Mammoth 
 Caves of Kentucky are blind, and of a white co- 
 lourless hue, as also is a species of Crawfish found 
 in the same subterranean waters. The Proteus 
 anguinus, inhabiting the caves of Illyria, exhibits 
 the same peculiarities. 
 
 Through the kindness of my friend, the late Sir 
 Emerson Tennent, I had on one occasion the op- 
 portunity of examining some newly discovered mud- 
 fish found under the surface of the paddy-fields of 
 Ceylon. The medium in which they exist is about 
 the consistency of pea-soup ; and their eyes are so 
 small as to be almost imperceptible. It may be 
 presumed, I think, that all these blind creatures 
 obtain their food principally or wholly by scent. 
 
 But to return. The bones in the head of the 
 Carp are very remarkable for their exquisite polish 
 and symmetry, being as hard and as white as ivory, 
 and resembling, indeed, a highly-finished marble 
 sculpture more than anything else. 1 The arrange- 
 ment of the bones forming the jaws and mouth is 
 also very complete and beautiful. According to 
 Blumenbach, Carp have the largest brain, in pro- 
 portion to their size, of any fresh-water fish : they 
 are certainly the most difficult to take by bait, and 
 
 1 There is or was before the migration to South Kensington 
 a skeleton of an enormous Carp in the British Museum, well 
 worth inspection. 
 
ioo THE SPOTTING FISH 
 
 are credited on occasions with an inconvenient 
 habit of cutting through the angler's line with the 
 sharp spine of their dorsal fin. It also seems to be 
 a well-established fact that when they see a net 
 approaching they will bury their noses in the mud 
 of the bottom and refuse to move, even though the 
 leads of the net sweep heavily over them. By this 
 means they escape. If, however, they should 
 happen to be dragged up by the net, they will fre- 
 quently endeavour, like the grey Mullet, to spring 
 over the top : in short, there is no doubt that the 
 Carp quite merits his sobriquet of the " water-fox." 
 The following method of Carp-fishing in stag- 
 nant waters, which I recommended in the " Angler- 
 Naturalist," appears, so far as my experience goes, 
 to be more successful than any other. " Let the 
 line be entirely of fine, round gut clouded if pos- 
 sible with a very light quill float, and one or two 
 small shot about a foot from the hook. Plumb the 
 depth accurately ; and arrange the distance between 
 the float and the shot so that the shot may exactly 
 rest on the bottom, weighing down the point of the 
 float a little out of the horizontal, and letting the 
 foot of gut below the shot and the bait lie on the 
 ground. Fix the rod in the bank, and keep per- 
 fectly quiet. When a bite is perceived, do not 
 strike, until the float begins to move away." 
 
 It constantly happens, however, that the Carp, 
 especially if large and wary, will not be taken 
 either by this or by any other mode of fishing. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 101 
 
 I was once witness to a very curious occurrence, 
 where a Carp usually such a timid and dainty 
 feeder took in succession two hooks baiteeityiffo 
 worms, on two different lines, and was itself ;taken 
 simultaneously by both, one hook being fastened 
 on each side of its mouth. The distance between 
 the two rods and baits at the time the fish took the 
 latter was not less than several yards, and the 
 floats disappeared almost at the same moment, 
 both anglers striking together, and the Carp being 
 lifted out between them. The boys to whom this 
 singular accident happened were brothers, and I 
 am sorry to add that, consanguinity notwithstand- 
 ing, the dispute as to the ownership of the Carp 
 waxed so warm as to render a final appeal to arms 
 or rather to fists necessary. 
 
 Although, as observed, Carp are the most shy 
 and difficult of capture of any of our fresh-water 
 species, they are one of the easiest to tame. They 
 feed readily in stews, and will come for their meals, 
 according to some authors, at the ringing of a bell 
 or at the sound of their keeper's voice. In the 
 waters of some public gardens near Rotterdam, 
 where the Carp attain to a great size, they are in 
 the habit of following visitors about in expectation 
 of food ; and one immense fellow, with a side as 
 broad as a flitch of bacon, and an appetite that 
 seemed insatiable, actually pursued me for nearly 
 a hundred yards along the side of the bank, until, 
 my stock of bread being exhausted, I was fain to 
 
102 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 try experiments with some paper pellets, when he 
 sailed off in magnificent disgust. This fish must 
 J^aye. weighed at least I5lbs. 
 
 i It* is not to be supposed, however, from these 
 instances, that Carp are the only fish which are 
 capable of being tamed, or are sensible to the in- 
 fluence of external sounds. At Sir J. Bowyer's, 
 near Uxbridge, Mr. Bradley tells us, there is, or 
 was, a pond full of tame Pike, which could be 
 called together at pleasure. Mr. Salter was ac- 
 quainted with a person who for several years kept, 
 in a water-butt, a Perch, which came to the sur- 
 face for its food whenever his owner tapped on the 
 side of the butt. According to ./Elian, the Chad 
 was lured to its destruction by the sound of cas- 
 tanets. Professor Rennie states, that in Germany, 
 this fish is still taken by nets hung with rows of 
 little bells arranged so as to chime in harmony ; 
 and, without going back to the story of Amphion 
 and the Dolphins, or the old Scottish harper, who, 
 according to the ballad, ''harped a fish out o' the 
 sa't water," we may find hundreds of well-authen- 
 ticated anecdotes pointing to the conclusion that at 
 any rate some species of fish have a very consider- 
 able perception of some sorts of external sounds. 
 
 Another peculiarity of the Carp is its power of 
 sustaining life out of water indeed, its "hard- 
 dying " qualities must have come under the notice 
 of most fishermen at some time or other. I have 
 more than once taken a basket of Carp a consi- 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 103 
 
 derable journey in the broiling heat of a July or 
 August day with no more moisture than could be 
 obtained from a damp cloth, and yet they have 
 been alive, and even lively, at the end of it. The 
 idiosyncracy is so well known and acted upon that 
 in Holland it is no uncommon practice to fatten 
 Carp for the table by hanging them in a cellar in a 
 net full of moss kept damp, and feeding them, like 
 babies, on bread and milk poked into their mouths 
 with a spoon. 
 
 The capacity of enduring this sort of amphibious 
 existence is no doubt due to the construction of 
 the fish's breathing apparatus, which is peculiar. 
 The supports of the gill-leaves are bony ; whilst in 
 the Perch they are formed partly of bone and 
 partly of cartilage, and in the Bream, Barbel, and 
 Pike wholly of cartilage. The consequence is that 
 instead of becoming stuck together when deprived 
 of the moisture of the water, these gill-leaves, 
 which represent the lungs of the fish, can be sepa- 
 rated by the action of the muscles so as to absorb 
 the oxygen from the air in other words to breathe. 
 In the Carp also the gill-openings, which in the 
 Salmon and Trout are equal in extent to the length 
 of the gill-arches, are partially closed by a mem- 
 brane, thus enabling them to retain moisture. 
 
 I have seen it stated, though I cannot say that I 
 have met with an instance within my own know- 
 ledge that upon the drying up or exhaustion of a 
 pond the Carp that were in it will bury themselves 
 
io 4 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 deep down below the surface of the mud, and 
 reappear like the mud-fish of the East in undi- 
 minished numbers upon the first return of water. 
 
 During the winter months it is probable that 
 Carp retire almost wholly into the mud, or under 
 roots, hollows, and weeds, and at this time they 
 are hardly ever to be taken with a bait. In the 
 summer they frequently lie sucking in the weeds, 
 in a sort of lazy state, each suck making a very 
 distinct and unmistakable noise. It much re- 
 sembles the sound made by a pig, to which 
 animal, indeed, a big Carp has always appeared to 
 me to bear a striking likeness both in face and 
 character. When not sucking or basking, the Carp 
 usually swims about in shoals near the surface of 
 the water, returning to the bottom to feed. Early 
 in the morning and late in the evening are the best 
 times for Carp fishing. 
 
 Carp spawn toward the end of May or beginning 
 of June, according to the temperature of the water 
 and the season ; they are supposed to continue 
 spawning occasionally for four or five months, and 
 always for a longer period than most other fish. 
 The ova which in a specimen weighing 9 Ibs., 
 were found by Block to number 600,000 are de- 
 posited upon weeds, amongst which the female is 
 followed by two or three males, thus securing the 
 impregnation of a large proportion of the eggs. 
 
 Characteristics common to all the Carp Family. Fin-rays 
 almost entirely flexible. Ventral fins suspended to the abdo- 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 105 
 
 men behind the pectorals, without being attached to the bones 
 of the shoulder. Mouth shallow ; lips commonly fleshy ; jaws 
 feeble, generally without teeth. Powerful teeth in the throat. 
 Only one back-fin. Body scaly. Very few gill-rays. 
 
 Besides the Common Carp, and cyprinus auratus 
 (the ordinary gold and silver fish of the aquaria,) 
 there is another though far from common 
 species belonging to the genus of the true Carps, 
 called the Prussian orGibel Carp (cyprinus gibelio), 
 a much rarer fish than the common Carp, and pro- 
 bably by anglers very often confounded with it. 
 
 From the common Carp, however, it is entirely 
 distinct, the following being the most obvious 
 structural differences : The whole general appear- 
 ance of the fish is much more thick and chublike 
 than the common Carp, resembling in fact the 
 Rudd in external form more than any other fish, 
 the common Carp much more nearly approaching 
 that of the Barbel. 
 
 In the common Carp the length of the head is 
 almost invariably greater than the depth of the 
 body in the deepest part, whilst in the Prussian 
 Carp it is always very much less. 
 
 The scales on the Prussian Carp are larger, the 
 number in the lateral line being about 33 and in 
 common Carp about 38. 
 
 The mark, however, by which the angler may 
 always at once distinguish the two fish on the most 
 cursory examination is the mouth. This in the 
 common Carp has two little barbels or beards 
 
106 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 at each corner, whilst in the mouth of the Prussian 
 Carp no beards whatever exist. 
 
 There are a good many other minor points of 
 difference which will be observed on a careful 
 comparison of the fish, but the above marks are 
 easily verified, and are amply sufficient for all pur- 
 poses of distinction. 
 
 Some ichthyologists, including Yarrell, make a 
 third species of British Carp, which they name the 
 Crucian Carp (cyprinus carassius) ; but as this dis- 
 tinction is founded on one or two specimens only, 
 said to have been caught in the Thames, I am of 
 opinion that there is not sufficient ground for the 
 distinction, which adds a needless complication in 
 the way of the fisherman and student of ichthy- 
 ology. 
 
 The Prussian Carp usually spawns about April 
 or May, or occasionally later, and in habits, food, 
 &c., has many points in common with the ordinary 
 Carp, from which it differs, however, in that it 
 rarely exceeds a couple of pounds in weight. 
 
 The Prussian Carp is found in several counties 
 of England, and probably exists in many others 
 where it has not hitherto been noticed. It is par- 
 ticularly common in the neighbourhood of the 
 Thames. It seldom bites freely, and consequently 
 but little success attends the angler. In habits and" 
 food the Prussian Carp closely resembles the pre- 
 ceding species ; and it is so tenacious of life, that it 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 107 
 
 has been known to survive after having been kept 
 out of the water thirty hours. 
 
 The principal characteristics of a Prussian Carp 
 that I examined were : 
 
 The total length of the fish, head, body and tail fin inclusive 
 being as 4, the length of the head alone is as i. Depth of body 
 at deepest part i-5th more than length of head : back fin very 
 long ; tail fin forked but not quite so much so as in the common 
 Carp. Mouth small, toothless : back and belly line both con- 
 vex. Colour : sides and cheeks pale straw colour, rather more 
 silvery than golden ventral and pectoral fins a light pinkish 
 tint. Tail and dorsal fins the same, only greener. Irides silvery 
 and green. 
 
 I did not count the fin-rays which, however, 
 Yarrell gives as, 
 
 Fin-rays : D. 4 | 16 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 3 | 6 : .19. 
 
THE TENCH. 1 
 
 LT HOUGH not of the same genus, yet 
 belonging notably to the same family, the 
 Tench follows the Carp with the same 
 sort of propriety as that which almost 
 invariably links together the names of the Salmon 
 and Trout in our fishing books and manuals of 
 ichthyology. The fish are constantly found in the 
 same localities indeed, I scarcely know a pond 
 containing the Tench which does not also contain 
 one or other variety of the Carp, they are both 
 equally long-lived out of water, their habits and 
 food are the same the modes of fishing for them 
 are the same, and the bait most successfully used 
 for catching the one will very frequently bring the 
 other floundering up out of the mud. 
 
 And yet, strange to say, in not a few points it 
 would be difficult to find two fish more dissimilar. 
 The Carp, for instance, has the largest scaling of 
 any of the fish composing the group of which it is 
 the type, whilst the scales of the Tench are 
 
 1 Tinea Vulgaris. Tinea, the Tench, vulgaris, common, Lat. 
 
o 
 
BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 109 
 
 amongst the smallest, if not actually the most 
 minute of the whole family ; the general hue of the 
 Carp is golden and bronze, that of the Tench deep 
 olive green ; and whilst the former makes one of 
 the very best Pike-baits I am acquainted with, 
 the latter, it is affirmed, exerts upon that usually 
 omnivorous gourmand an effect absolutely repel- 
 lent. Of the truth of this, as a fact, there seems to 
 be no reason to doubt, though we are not, of 
 course, bound to put implicit faith in the various 
 theories by which it has at different times been 
 explained. Of these the most universally accepted 
 amongst ancient, and even by some modern 
 authors appears to be that the Tench is in some 
 way the physician of the water, possessing in the 
 thick slime with which he is covered, a natural 
 balsam for the cure of himself and others. Ron- 
 deletius even says that he saw a great recovery 
 effected upon a sick man by the application of a 
 Tench to his feet. 
 
 Without, however, trenching so nearly on the 
 domain of the miraculous, there certainly are many 
 accounts on record of the restoration of sick and 
 wounded fish by contact with the Tench. The fol- 
 lowing, mentioned by Mr. Wright, in his book on 
 " Fishes and Fishing," is one out of a hundred 
 of such alleged instances that might be quoted : 
 
 " A gentleman, who was unfortunately unable to 
 leave the house for some time through an accident, 
 
no THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 amused himself by making small artificial flies,, 
 which he did very neatly. He kept some minnows, 
 and a Tench about 2\ inches long, in a very large 
 wide-mouthed bottle; all the minnows had died 
 except one ; my friend was just finishing a fly as I 
 went into his room, and he held it upon the surface 
 of the water in the bottle as he was often in the 
 habit of doing ; the minnow darted at it so rapidly, 
 that he could not withdraw the fly in time to pre- 
 vent the hook from pricking the minnow ; the little 
 fish descended three-parts of the way down the 
 bottle, poised himself for a moment, with his nose 
 pointing downwards, then swiftly went the re- 
 mainder of the way, rubbed his nose during a few 
 seconds against the side of the Tench, and again 
 swam about as lively as before. We both joined 
 in the opinion that it is really no fable as to the 
 Tench being the ^Esculapius of fish ; for here was 
 an example before our eyes of a fish being wounded, 
 and immediately instinct directing him to seek a 
 remedy." 
 
 Camden in his " Britannica," also alludes to this 
 circumstance. " I have seen," he says, "the bellies 
 of Pikes which have been rent open, have their 
 gaping wounds presently closed by the touch of 
 the Tench, and by his glutinous slime perfectly 
 healed up." 
 
 In fact for the Tench has been literally claimed 
 the royal gift of healing by touch. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. in 
 
 Equally numerous, if not perhaps more credible, 
 are the testimonies to the fact that the Pike, des- 
 tructive and insatiable to all else, has yet that 
 " grace of courtesy " left in him that he spares to 
 molest his physician, even when most pressed by 
 hunger ; perhaps upon the same principle as that 
 which guides his prototype, the shark, in sparing 
 the useful and friendly little pilot fish. Amongst 
 other angling authorities, Oppian, Walton, Hollin- 
 shed, Bowlker, Salter, Williamson, Hofland, and 
 Fitzgibbon, all acknowledge to more or less faith 
 in the truth of the assertion. Salter says, " I have 
 known several trimmers to be laid at night, baited 
 with live fish, Roach, Dace, Bleak, and Tench, 
 each about 6 or seven inches long ; and when 
 those trimmers were examined in the morning, both 
 eels and Jack have been taken by hooks baited 
 with any other fish than Tench, which I found 
 as lively as when put into the water the preceding 
 night, without ever having been disturbed. This 
 has invariably been the case during my experience ; 
 neither have I met with one solitary instance to the 
 contrary related by any of my acquaintance, who 
 have had numerous opportunities of noticing the 
 singular circumstance of the perfect freedom from 
 death or wounds which the Tench enjoys over 
 every other inhabitant of the liquid element, arising 
 from continual conflicts with each other." 
 
 I have quoted some portion of the preceding 
 from the " Angler-Naturalist," in which I also 
 
ii2 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 mentioned that to try the experiment practically, 
 I procured some small Tench, and fished with 
 them as live-baits for a whole day in some excel- 
 lent Pike water, but without getting a touch. In 
 the evening I put on a small Carp, and had a run 
 almost immediately. I also tried some Pike in a 
 stock-pond with the same Tench, but they would 
 not take them ; and though left in the pond all 
 night one on a hook, and one attached to a fine 
 thread both baits were alive in the morning, 
 some Pike-teeth marks, however, being visible 
 upon the hooked fish. 
 
 These are facts which (having occurred within 
 my own knowledge) I can mention with certainty, 
 but at the same time without expressing any 
 opinion as to the truth or otherwise of the theories 
 by which the curious in ichthyology would propose 
 to explain them. The whole question would form 
 a very interesting and legitimate subject for expe- 
 riment to any one who might have leisure and 
 inclination to investigate it practically. 
 
 The notion of the Tench being the Pike's phy- 
 sician has been thus admirably versified : 
 
 " The Pike, fell tyrant of the liquid plain, 
 With ravenous waste devours his fellow train : 
 Yet howsoe'er by raging famine pined, 
 The Tench he spares a medicinal kind ; 
 For when, by wounds distrest and sore disease, 
 He courts the salutary fish for ease, 
 Close to his scales the kind physician glides, 
 And sweats a healing balsam from his sides." 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 113 
 
 A less poetical explanation of the Pike's abstinence 
 is given by Bingley, who suggests that, as the 
 Tench is so fond of mud as to be constantly at the 
 bottom of the water, where the Pike cannot find 
 him, the self-denial of the latter may be attributable 
 to less elevated causes. This prosaic theory, how- 
 ever, also requires confirmation, 
 
 As to the gastronomic qualities of the Tench 
 opinions differ, but in Holland and some other 
 parts of Europe it is a common dish at the dinner- 
 table and is thought both wholesome and nutritious. 
 Like the Eel, however, it would appear to be palat- 
 able in a precisely inverse ratio to the cleanliness of 
 its abode, improving in gustatory attractions as it 
 approaches more nearly in colour and diet the com- 
 position of its habitual mud. Thus, "Tench were 
 taken out of Munden Hall Fleet, Essex, which 
 was so thick with weeds that flue nets could hardly 
 be sunk through them, where the mud was intoler- 
 ably fetid and had dyed the fish of its own hue, 
 which was that of ink; yet no Tench could be 
 better grown or of a sweeter flavour." . . . " In a 
 clean pond at Leigh's Priory a quantity of Tench 
 were caught, about 3 Ibs. weight each, of a colour 
 the most golden and beautiful ; but when dressed 
 and brought to table they smelt and tasted so 
 rankly that no one would eat them ! " The re- 
 moval of the slime from the fish with warm water 
 before cooking is said to take away the muddy 
 taste. 
 
1 1 4 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 The best bait for the Tench is a well-scoured 
 brandling the method of fishing being similar to 
 that adopted for .Carp. Mr. R. B. Marston, in 
 a capital article on Tench-fishing, published in 
 the "Fishing Gazette" of 24th Oct., 1885, recom- 
 mends a second hook baited with brown-bread 
 paste, and placed about four inches above the hook 
 that is baited with the worm, so that one lies on 
 the bottom and the other just floats clear of it. 
 
 The specimen from which the illustration was 
 taken was a female fish weighing about 2 Ibs., and 
 in very fine condition. Between the male and 
 female Tench a marked and curious difference 
 exists in regard to the ventral fins. In the 
 females these fins are of the ordinary size and 
 shape, but in the males they are much larger and 
 more muscular, and present almost the appearance 
 of a green concave shell, the concave side being 
 uppermost. From five to six pounds is about the 
 usual maximum weight, the largest recorded to 
 have been taken a fish fifty years old at least 
 weighing somewhat over eleven. 
 
 The Tench spawns with some variations about 
 the middle of June, or, according to Willoughby, 
 when wheat is in blossom. 
 
 The following were the principal measurements, 
 &c., of the fish represented in the engraving : 
 
 The length of the head alone being considered as i, the total 
 length of the head, body and tail-fin not quite as 5. Depth of 
 body at deepest part i-5th more than length of head. All 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 115 
 
 the fins rounded at the extremities. Tail-fin not at all forked, 
 nearly square with the corners rounded off; mouth small, tooth- 
 less; with one barbed at each corner. Scales very small. 
 Colours : head, sides, and cheeks golden green ; darker on the 
 back and fins; orange yellow under the belly; irides bright 
 orange red. 
 
THE BARBEL. 1 
 
 HE Barbel is distinguished from the 
 last genus (Cyprinus) in having the 
 back- and anal-fins short instead of 
 elongated, with a strong bony ray in 
 the dorsal fin, the mouth also being furnished 
 with four barbels or " beards." Exclusively a 
 river-fish, it is a native of many parts of England, 
 and abounds particularly in the Trent and the 
 Thames ; in the latter being so numerous, that 
 in the neighbourhood of Weybridge as much as 
 280 Ibs. weight have been taken, according to 
 local tradition, by a single rod in one day. At 
 Temple Weir, near Marlow, I have also known 
 some extraordinary baskets to be made. 
 
 Although, in an angling point of view, less wary 
 and difficult of capture than the Carp, the Barbel, 
 both in its natural state and in confinement, is the 
 shyest and most untameable of all our freshwater 
 fish, except perhaps the Loach, exhibiting an ex- 
 
 1 Barbus vulgaris. "Bearded," from barba^ a beard, Lat.; 
 iS) common, Lat. 
 
I 
 
 W 
 PQ 
 
 PQ 
 
 W 
 X 
 H 
 
f^ 
 
 BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 117 
 
 traordinary degree of reserve and intolerance of 
 observation. In the spring, however, when the 
 fish seek the gravelly shallows to spawn, they 
 become very lively, and at this season may some- 
 times be seen tumbling and rolling about with 
 their bodies half out of the water like a shoal of 
 porpoises. Amongst some specimens kept in a 
 vivarium, it was observed that, when they fancied 
 no one was looking, they would plunge and rub 
 themselves against the brickwork, and otherwise 
 show considerable signs of playfulness. 
 
 The name " Barbel," as already noticed, is de- 
 rived from the barbs or beards at the corners of 
 the mouth. These are evidently designed to assist 
 the fish in feeling its way about in deep and, con- 
 sequently, more or less dark waters, which are its 
 natural habitats, and probably also for the purpose 
 of enabling it to detect the nature of the substances 
 with which it comes in contact. Of the species 
 provided with these barbs or beards viz., the 
 Carp, Tench, Gudgeon, Loach, and Burbot all 
 find their food principally, or wholly, on the 
 bottom ; and generally the fact of a fish being 
 " bearded " affords a correct index to its habits. 
 
 The Barbel is not much of a fish-eater, although 
 it has been known occasionally to take small fry 
 such as Minnows. Its ordinary food consists prin- 
 cipally of worms, slugs, grubs, &c. ; and in order 
 to procure these it routs about amongst the gravel 
 with its nose, in very much the same manner that 
 
n8 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 a pig furrows a field with its snout. Lob-worms, 
 gentles, and greaves (here placed in what may pro- 
 bably be regarded as their order of merit), are the 
 usual baits for this fish. Three styles of fishing also, 
 one of which is peculiar to the Barbel, are commonly 
 employed for its capture, viz., ordinary float-fishing, 
 Nottingham-fishing, and " legering" the last the 
 specialty of the art, and until late years almost 
 wholly confined to the Thames and its habituts. 
 
 The Barbel spawns in May or June, depositing 
 its ova, which in a large fish sometimes number 
 7,000 or 8,000, in the gravelly or shingly beds of 
 the stream, where they are immediately covered 
 by the parent fishes. These eggs are vivified, in 
 warm weather, between the ninth and fifteenth day. 
 
 The spawners, so soon as they have recovered a 
 little strength, make their way into the swiftest 
 streams they can find, such as weirs, mill-tails, &c., 
 to scour and brace themselves, beginning to get 
 into condition again in a few weeks, and being in 
 the best season for the angler until September and 
 October, when the frosty nights drive them from 
 the streams and shallows into the deeper waters. 
 Here they will be found until the spring ; and in 
 these quiet deeps and eddies they are to be caught, 
 if anywhere, during the winter months. At this 
 period, however, especially if the weather is very 
 cold, it is of comparatively little use to fish for 
 them, as they lie in a sort of semi-torpid condition 
 and refuse to move. So inanimate are they, that 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 119 
 
 the fishermen, it is said, not unfrequently provide 
 themselves with hoop landing-nets which they 
 place near the Barbel and with a pole literally 
 push them in. Shoals sometimes collect under the 
 shelter of a sunken punt or other tidal obstruction, 
 lying" one over the other as closely as they can 
 pack, and when thus congregated are often taken 
 by being' 4 hooked foul." I have also been assured 
 that boys and others who are good swimmers will 
 dive into the water and take them with the hand 
 from under the banks and holes. 
 
 Barbel are numerous in many parts of the 
 world; but their natural habitat appears to be 
 the warmer climates of Europe, and it is stated 
 by Cuvier that in localities favourable to them 
 they will grow to 10 feet long. They are plen- 
 tiful in the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, and 
 the Weser, in almost all the rivers flowing into 
 the Black Sea, and in the Volga, where they 
 attain the weight of 40 and 50 Ibs. In this country 
 the usual weight does not exceed lolbs. ; but spe- 
 cimens have been occasionally taken as large as 
 15 Ibs., and one is even chronicled as having been 
 caught in the River Lea which weighed 19 Ibs. 
 Such a leviathan must have taxed both the patience 
 and the muscles of his captor if, indeed, he was 
 taken by rod and line as the Barbel is exceedingly 
 strong and makes a powerful fight, showing as 
 much sport, though in a dogged sullen sort of way, 
 as almost any fish of the same size except perhaps 
 
120 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 the Salmon-Trout. It is, however, in small esteem 
 for the table, at which in this country it seldom 
 makes its appearance though frequently figuring 
 in French and German menus. Indeed, I remem- 
 ber an English country-house on the banks of the 
 Thames where a dish of Barbel was a not uncom- 
 mon and much appreciated addition to the break- 
 fast-table. The fish was baked in a large open 
 pie-dish, with plenty of cloves and spices whether 
 with or without vinegar or other sauce or gravy I 
 am not sure but the jelly it formed when cold 
 was as firm as that of strong soup. 
 
 It has been observed that many species of the 
 Carp family have the power of emitting a guttural 
 sound under water, although the mechanism by 
 which this is effected is not understood no air- 
 bubble escaping from the mouth of the fish at the 
 time and amongst the species producing these 
 sounds the Barbel is particularly noted. 
 
 Besides those already mentioned, the principal characteris- 
 tics of the Barbel are Mouth toothless ; throat-teeth in three 
 rows on each side, the rows numbering 2, 3, and 5 respectively. 
 Body elongated. Length of head compared with total length 
 of fish as i to 5 ; depth of body less than length of head. 
 Head elongated, wedge-shaped ; upper half of jaw much the 
 longer. Upper lip circular and fleshy. One pair of barbels at 
 the front of the nose, and a single one at the end of upper lip 
 on each side. Third ray of back-fin largest and strongest, 
 toothed on its hinder surface. Tail deeply forked at the end. 
 Colour ' (taken from a Thames fish weighing about 6 Ibs., 
 caught Sept., 1885, by Percy Mitchell, Esq.) : back, and back- 
 fin olive brown, with a bronzy tone ; head the same ; irides and 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 121 
 
 gill-covers just behind the eyes golden bronze ; upper part of 
 body, general effect greenish brown, becoming yellowish or 
 bronzy green on sides belly and throat silver white ; scales at 
 base browny bronze, at margins silvery whitish ; barbels at 
 corners of mouth, pale fleshy pink ; margins of all the fins 
 (except the back-fin), and including tail-fin, pale fleshy pink, 
 which extends diminishing" in intensity nearly to the bases 
 or origins of the several fins. 
 
THE COMMON OR CARP BREAM. 1 
 
 |E pass now to the Breams, which are 
 distinguished from the thick-skinned 
 Carps by their bright nacry scales. 
 Unlike the latter fish and the Barbel, 
 the Breams have no strong bony rays in the fins, 
 nor any beards at the corners of the mouth. The 
 body in all the species is deep and thin, or com- 
 pressed, the outlines above and below being very 
 convex : the base of the back-fin is short, and 
 placed further back than the ventral fin, whilst the 
 base of the anal fin is very long. 
 
 If we may credit the French proverb quoted by 
 Izaak Walton, that " He that hath Breams in his 
 pond is able to bid his friend welcome," these fish 
 would seem to be in considerable request on the 
 Continent as an edible. In England they are 
 seldom considered worth cooking, and the variety 
 known as the White Bream, or Bream- Flat, enjoys 
 a thoroughly evil reputation. Few fish, however, 
 
 1 Abramis brama. Abramis, a Bream, Gr.; brama, the 
 Bream, Lat. 
 

f*^ 
 
 BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 123 
 
 afford better sport with the rod and line than 
 the Carp Bream, as they are exceedingly strong 
 and vigorous, sometimes weighing as much as 
 7 and 8 Ibs. according to the author of the 
 "Angler's Instructor" even 17 Ibs. and are by 
 no means shy biters. Bream form also a useful 
 stock for ponds, or to feed Pike, being hardy and of 
 quick growth. The ova in one female have been 
 counted, and found to be 130,000. 
 
 There are two species of Breams commonly 
 found in this country the Carp- Bream and the 
 White Bream or Bream-Flat. The Carp-Bream is 
 in its distribution an inhabitant of all the central 
 districts of Europe, as well as those northward to 
 St. Petersburg, Finland, and Scandinavia. Some 
 of the lakes of Ireland also produce it in large 
 quantities. In England it is found in many coun- 
 ties, appearing to thrive best in large open sheets 
 of water and in slow rivers where the stream occa- 
 sionally widens out into broads or deeps as in Nor- 
 folk. Of the rivers near the metropolis which 
 breed this fish perhaps the Mole and the Medway 
 are the most noted. Bream are also very nume- 
 rous in the Thames at Weybridge just below its 
 junction with the Wey, and in the latter river 
 higher up towards Wisley are occasionally caught 
 of very large size. I once examined a specimen 
 weighing upwards of 5 Ibs. taken thence ; the scales 
 of this fish were rough and almost file-like, from a 
 small whitish tubercle which is a periodical produc- 
 
124 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 tion common to the species, as well as to several 
 others of the Carp family, at the spawning-time. 
 
 The smaller and inferior variety of this genus, 
 already mentioned, called the White Bream or 
 Bream-Flat (Abramis blicca], is frequently found in 
 the same waters as the Carp-Bream, and in habits 
 and food is nearly identical. The principal points 
 in which it differs in appearance from the Carp- 
 Bream are (i) its colour, the prevailing tone of 
 which is rather silvery than yellow; (2) its size 
 the Bream- Flat rarely exceeding i Ib. in weight; 
 and (3) its teeth (throat-teeth), which are in two 
 rows on each side, numbering two and five re- 
 spectively, those of the Carp-Bream being placed 
 in only one row on each side, numbering five. This 
 last point of difference is so obvious and easily 
 verified that no mistake can possibly occur. Other 
 minor distinctions will be observed on a close com- 
 parison of the fish. The White Bream is known to 
 exist in Cambridgeshire, Nottinghamshire, Norfolk, 
 and Dumfriesshire. I have taken it frequently in 
 the River Wey in Surrey, and it is probably locally 
 recognized in many other counties. It is also 
 common on the Continent and in Scandinavia. 
 It is best fished for with roach-tackle and a red 
 worm or gentle, and has this singular habit by 
 which it may be constantly recognized, even before 
 it has been seen of rising instead of descending 
 with the bait ; in consequence of which the float, 
 in lieu of being drawn under water, is laid flat upon 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 125 
 
 the surface. The fish takes a bait readily, but 
 often spits it out again from being too indolent to 
 swallow it. The Swedish fishermen call it the 
 Aetare, or the Glutton. 
 
 In the Bavarian dialect the term blicke is applied 
 to fishes that have a silvery glitter in the water 
 whence the specific name blicca, given to it on 
 account of the brightness of its colour as compared 
 with the Carp- Bream. 
 
 The principal characteristics of the White Bream 
 are 
 
 Throat-teeth hooked, in two rows as above stated. Length 
 of head compared with that of body alone as i to 3. Head 
 larger, and fleshy portion of tail comparatively deeper, than in 
 the Carp-bream. Scales larger than those of the latter. Lateral 
 line not quite so low down, and with fewer scales, numbering 
 46 or 50. Relative position of fins very similar; fin-rays dif- 
 ferent in number. Colour, generally, of the sides bluish white, 
 without any of the golden-yellow lustre observable in the Carp- 
 Bream. Ventral and pectoral fins tinged with red. 
 
 Fin-rays : D. 10 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 23 : C. 19. 
 
 The Pomeranian Bream 1 is another variety so 
 scarce as to be rarely recognized, even when acci- 
 dentally met with. It may be readily distinguished, 
 however, both from the White and Carp- Bream by 
 the number of throat-teeth on each side, which are 
 in two rows numbering five and three respectively, 
 instead of, as in the former, in two rows of five 
 and two, and, as in the latter, in a single row of 
 five. It is also distinguished by the greater thick- 
 
 1 Abramis Buggenhagii. 
 
126 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 ness of its body, which is equal to half its depth, 
 whilst in the other two the same measurement is 
 only equal to one-third of the depth. The anal fin 
 is shorter and has a smaller number of rays than 
 that of the Bream-flat, which, again, presents a 
 similar proportion as contrasted with the Carp- 
 Bream. It is a very rare fish, being only known 
 to inhabit a few waters, amongst which may be 
 mentioned the River Lagan near Belfast, a pond 
 at Bottisham in Cambridgeshire, some water near 
 Wolverhampton, a few of the Broads of Norfolk, 
 and the preserves at Dagenham Reach, Essex, 
 well known to London anglers. 
 
 Length of head compared to total length of body as i to 
 5 ; depth at deepest part as i to 3. Head small and pointed. 
 Mouth small, toothless. Throat-teeth in two rows (numbering 
 five and three respectively) on each side. Number of scales in 
 lateral line 52. Vertebrae 41. Colour: over upper part of 
 head and back dark blackish blue, becoming lighter on the 
 upper part of sides ; lower part of sides and belly silvery white : 
 fins bluish brown, more or less tinged with brown. 
 
 Fin-rays: D. 12: P. 17: V. 19: A. 19: C. 19. 
 
 Of Carp-Bream large ''takes" are occasionally 
 made by rod and line in the Weybridge Deep 
 before referred to, the method of angling found 
 most successful being the Nottingham system of 
 float-fishing alluded to under the notice of the 
 Barbel, the baits and ground-baits for which are 
 also those most killing in Bream-fishing. Bream 
 are gregarious, and their food consists of worms, 
 

 OF GREAT BRITAIN. 127 
 
 slugs, aquatic insects, and vegetable substances : 
 they spawn in May. 
 
 The specimen, a fine male, selected for repre- 
 sentation was taken by Mr. James Smithers, in 
 the Wey near Byfleet. Its colours were : belly 
 white ; sides, nearly up to the top of the back, 
 silvery gold with a slight greenish tinge above 
 the lateral line ; all the fins greenish black, pectoral 
 and ventral fins rather lighter ; irides silvery, with 
 a narrow bright yellow circle round the pupils ; 
 upper outline of fish almost black when held up 
 to the light and looked at sideways ; lateral line 
 very concave ; tail exceedingly forked, anal fin 
 very long. 
 
 Other Characteristics of the common Bream. Throat-teeth 
 cylindrical, with smooth crowns adapted for bruising, placed in 
 single rows, five teeth on each side. Mouth small, toothless, 
 without barbels. Scales placed in curves on the fore part of 
 the back, a naked place behind the ventrals. Length of head 
 to body as i to 3. Head small, nape of neck depressed. Body 
 deep and flat, very convex above and below, scales compara- 
 tively small. Scales of lateral line varying in number from 5 2 
 to 58. 
 
 Fin-rays : D. u : P. 17 : V. 9 : A. 29 : C. 19. 
 
THE ROACH. 1 
 
 HE Roach or, as its technical name 
 might be translated, the " Red Dace," 
 from the scarlet colour of the fins is 
 a great favourite with London fishers, 
 who at any time between August and May may 
 be seen perched, regardless of safety, upon pro- 
 jecting trees, bridge-buttresses, and, indeed, every 
 other accessible " coigne of vantage " between 
 Battersea Fields and Walton on Thames, or clus- 
 tering on the hundred-and-one lock-gates with 
 which the pretty river Lea is intersected almost 
 to its source. From these perilous eminences they 
 contemplate and we may presume are also con- 
 templated by the intelligent Leuciscini, which, 
 notwithstanding, seldom fail to find their way in 
 greater or less numbers into the cockney's basket. 
 The Londoners, in fact, bear away the palm from 
 all competitors in Roach-fishing a department of 
 angling, be it said, demanding a by no means 
 small amount of quickness of hand and eye. Mr. 
 
 1 Leu cisc us rutilus. Leuciscus, a Dace, Gr. rutilus ^ red, Lat. 
 
U 
 
 o 
 
BRITISH: SPORTING FISH. 129 
 
 Jesse, who has amusingly classified the several 
 orders and genera of Thames anglers, gives the 
 Roach and Dace fishers a very high rank for 
 skill and patience, and believes that they very 
 seldom attempt, or understand, any other branch 
 of the gentle craft ; whilst my friend Mr. Senior 
 elevates them still further in the angler's " prece- 
 dence," by devoting to their pursuits a charming 
 article entitled " Roach Fishing as a Fine Art." l 
 
 The largest shoals of Roach appear in the 
 Thames about the middle of May or early in 
 June, when they ascend from the lower parts of 
 the river to deposit their spawn in the higher 
 reaches, fighting their way up the strong rapids 
 with persistent energy, until they find a suitable 
 spot. This migration, it has been thought by 
 some authors, takes place from the sea ; but the 
 opinion seems to be erroneous as all experiments 
 have tended to prove that the roach will not live 
 in salt water. A similar annual exodus has been 
 noticed in Loch Lomond and elsewhere. The 
 Roach deposit their spawn on the surface of weeds 
 in shallow water, and whilst in the act of spawning 
 may sometimes be seen by hundreds together with 
 their back-fins out of water : a very few days 
 suffice to complete the reproductive process and 
 the fish then seek swift gravelly shallows on which 
 to scour themselves. These they soon quit, how- 
 
 1 " Badminton Library of Sport : " Longmans & Co. 
 K 
 
130 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 ever, for quieter currents, where they remain 
 several months, retiring about October into the 
 deeps and still waters for the winter, and always 
 selecting a gravelly or sandy bottom in preference 
 to a muddy one. 
 
 In the nature of its food the Roach resembles 
 the Dace, feeding, however, principally at night, 
 and by day swimmimg about in large shoals near 
 the bottom. The best general bait is the gentle ; 
 but pastes of various kinds, and sometimes small 
 red worms, are found equally killing. 
 
 Roach will not unfrequently take the artificial 
 fly, especially when first scouring themselves after 
 spawning, and I have caught some very fine 
 specimens with the gentle, thrown like the fly, and 
 also when dapping for Chub with the imitation 
 grasshopper. A ludicrous incident in connection 
 with the fly-catching propensities of the Roach is 
 mentioned in a recent work on Angling : A gen- 
 tleman passing by the Round Pond on Clapham 
 Common, observed these fish rising freely at the 
 swarms of hovering ephemera; and wishing to 
 try whether they would not be equally susceptible 
 to the artificial insect, sent back for a fly-rod, &c., 
 and a small fly. The Roach, however, in tKis 
 instance refused to be enticed ; but a fine New- 
 foundland dog which was swimming about, snap- 
 ping impotently at the gnats and midges, perceived 
 the apparently drowning insect, and dashed at it 
 " taking the death " with a plunge like a heavy 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. r 3 i 
 
 Salmon, and being fairly hooked in the jaws. 
 Away went the astonished dog towards the oppo- 
 site shore away went the line and away went 
 the equally astonished angler himself, who, anxious 
 to save his tackle, and being withal of somewhat 
 pursy and plethoric habit, was obliged to make 
 desperate efforts to keep up with his novel dttenu. 
 Finding himself thus chased by what must have 
 appeared to him to be a man brandishing a huge 
 whip, the dog made for home as fast as his legs 
 could carry him, followed by the shouts of the 
 spectators, and also by his unwilling captor, who, 
 despite his obesity, gallantly maintained the race, 
 springing over " bank, bush, and scaur," and steer- 
 ing his prisoner safely through opposing furze- 
 brakes, until he landed him at his master's domicile. 
 
 It once happened to me to hook a half-grown 
 wild duck, or " flapper," in a somewhat similar 
 manner in Loch Lochy, except that in this in- 
 stance the cast, which was made with a spinning 
 bait, was intentional. The duck, " hooked-foul " 
 as it was in the act of diving, continued submerged 
 until netted at the side of the boat. The author 
 of the " Angler's Rambles " mentions an anecdote 
 of a hare being thus taken with a trout-fly as she 
 was attempting to swim a river. The fly, adroitly 
 cast, stuck into the fur of her back, and, as her 
 captor remarked, landed her "comfortably" 
 
 Curious instances are related of birds and other 
 animals accidently swallowing fish-hooks. Within 
 
132 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 my knowledge both waterhens and cats have been 
 caught in this manner. Ducks are the constant 
 victims of their incautious rapacity, and barn-door 
 fowls have not unfrequently been tempted to de- 
 struction by the allurements of a baited minnow 
 or seductive " green drake." An instance of the 
 latter is mentioned by Mr. Wright : A gentleman 
 fishing with May-flies in the river Wye went into 
 an inn on the road-side, leaving his rod in the 
 portico, where a fine white cock took a fancy to 
 the fly, and became hooked in the soft part of the 
 beak. Feeling the hook the intruder prepared to 
 beat a hasty retreat and in so doing pulled down 
 the rod, with which he was running away in great 
 alarm ; but the angler, hearing the noise, sallied 
 forth, gave chase, and regained his departing 
 paraphernalia, when the cock mounted into the air, 
 and was with some difficulty brought down and 
 secured. 
 
 The Roach spawns about the end of May or 
 the beginning of June, when the scales become 
 rough to the touch. The largest specimen that I 
 am aware of having been taken is that mentioned 
 by Pennant, which weighed 5 Ibs. 
 
 There is another species of the genus lenciscus, 
 closely allied to the Roach so closely, indeed, 
 that it has by some authors been supposed to be a 
 hybrid between that fish and the Bream or Carp- 
 viz., the Rudd or Red-Eye, Icucisciis erythroph- 
 

 
. 
 
 
 
 
 an inn 
 
 
. ,- 
 
 OF GREAT BRITAIN. 133 
 
 tkalmus. It is a pond rather than a river fish, 
 thriving best in broad shallow meres and lagoons, 
 like Slapton Ley, in North Devon, and several of 
 the " Broads," as they are called, of Norfolk. 
 Under such favourable conditions Rudd multiply in 
 an extraordinary manner, feeding perhaps princi- 
 pally on some species of water-weed with which, 
 at Slapton Ley, I have constantly found their 
 stomachs to be filled. In this latter sheet of water 
 they grow to an occasional weight of over 3 Ibs. 
 specimens from i to 2 Ibs. being very common. 
 When of this growth the Rudd affords capital 
 sport as they will readily take a gentle thrown in 
 the same way as an artificial fly, and sometimes 
 though here I speak from report and not from 
 my own observation the artificial fly itself. 
 
 When first caught, and in full season, I should 
 unhesitatingly give to the full-grown Rudd the 
 palm for brilliancy of colouring, if not for general 
 appearance, over all other " coarse " fresh-water 
 fish of the British Islands. The general hue of 
 the body is a reddish gold, varying according to 
 the light in which it is seen ; the eyes and fins are 
 tinted different shades of crimson, orange, and 
 green, whilst the cheeks and sides are of a rich 
 golden yellow. From this colouring it is needless 
 to say it derives its English name " Rudd." The 
 specific name, erythrophthalmus (from the Greek, 
 erythros, red, and ophthalmus, the eye), has also a 
 similar origin. 
 
134 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 Some authors have imagined that this fish is a 
 hybrid between the Bream and the Roach, an 
 opinion which Walton also seems to have shared. 
 " There is," he says, " a kind of bastard small 
 Roach, that breeds in ponds, with a very forked 
 tail, and of a very small size, which some say is 
 bred by the Bream and right Roach ; and some 
 ponds are stored with these beyond belief; and 
 knowing men that know their difference call them 
 Rud : they differ from the true Roach as much 
 as does a herring from a pilchard. And these 
 bastard Roach are now scattered in many rivers, 
 but, I think, not in the Thames." Elsewhere he 
 adds, " Some say that Breams and Roaches mix 
 their eggs and milt together ; and so there is in 
 many places a bastard breed of Breams that never 
 come to be very large or good, but that are very 
 numerous." 
 
 The species referred to by Walton are, no 
 doubt, the true Rudd and the W T hite Bream, or 
 Bream-flat, the more common size of the former 
 being, as he describes, exceedingly small, and the 
 latter seldom exceeding a pound in weight. The 
 researches of modern ichthyologists have, how- 
 ever, thrown great doubts upon the existence of 
 any constantly recurring hybrids amongst fish, and 
 there can be no doubt that in the instances referred 
 to the three species are distinct. Without going 
 into the general question or giving all the reasons 
 on which this conclusion is based, it may be men- 
 
. 
 OF GREAT BRITAIN. 135 
 
 tioned that the Rudd is constantly found in waters 
 in which no Bream exist, and that the Bream-flat 
 has been recognized only in a comparatively few 
 rivers, whilst in hundreds Roach and Bream co- 
 exist plentifully together, without either Rudd or 
 Bream-flats. 
 
 The Rudd is the " Shallow " of Cambridgeshire, 
 the " Roud " of Norfolk, and the " Roach " (that is 
 the fish commonly so-called) of Ireland. 
 
 It spawns in April or early in May, breeding, 
 as I have observed, very freely in water the con- 
 ditions of which are suitable, and owing to its 
 being remarkably prolific making a capital stock 
 for the feeding of Pike and Perch. As a live-bait 
 for the former it is particularly worth notice, its 
 glittering tints and the scarlet colour of its fins 
 giving it a bright and highly attractive appearance 
 in the water. It is also remarkably tenacious of 
 life. In its habits and general mode of feeding the 
 Rudd resembles its congener, the Roach. The most 
 remarkable differences between the two species (I 
 write with the fish before me) are as follows : 
 
 In two specimens of the same length : The 
 body of the Rudd is a good deal flatter and deeper 
 than that of the Roach ; and the head is much 
 shorter and more " chubby," being in fact little 
 more than f ths of the length of that of the Roach. 
 The dorsal-fin of the Roach commences as nearly 
 as possible over the ventral fins, whilst in the 
 Rudd it is placed considerably further back. In 
 
136 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 colour the general appearance of the Rudd is 
 golden, and that of the Roach silvery. 
 
 The most obvious mark, however, and that by 
 which the Rudd can be both easily and certainly 
 distinguished from the Roach, is the relative posi- 
 tion of the back fin above described as this 
 never varies and can be seen at a glance ; indeed, 
 so marked is it that upon this structural difference 
 ichthyologists have placed the two fish in different 
 sections of the same genus, 
 
 Although the external form of the Rudd is 
 perhaps almost as much like that of the Bream 
 as of the Roach, there is, in consequence of its 
 scarlet fins and generally " Roach-like " appear- 
 ance, no other fish with which it can well be 
 confused, even by the least initiated, and it is, 
 therefore, unnecessary to enter into a comparison 
 of its characteristics with those of any other 
 species. 
 
 The full measurements and colouring of the two 
 fish are as follows : 
 
 The Rudd. Length of head not quite |th of total length 
 (including head, body, and tail-fin to the extremity), shape of 
 head "chubby." Depth of body at broadest part not quite 
 equal to twice the length of the head. Dorsal-fin commencing 
 a good deal further back than the ventrals (about as much 
 further back as ^ths of the length of the head). Base of 
 dorsal-fin, midway between point of nose and extremity of tail- 
 fin. Scales large, number in lateral line about 42. Number 
 of scales in oblique line at widest part of body, 12. Teeth 
 pharyngeal. Colours : back and head olive green, then 
 bronze, merging into silvery -golden on the sides, and becoming 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 137 
 
 silver-white on the throat and belly ; gill-covers, bright orange 
 behind the eyes. The whole of the irides red-orange. Pec- 
 toral and dorsal fins pinky-olive, or olive, slightly tinged with 
 red towards the extremities ; ventral- and anal-fins, bright 
 crimson ; tail-fin, with a base of olive-green tinged with crimson, 
 the crimson getting more vivid towards margin, and top and 
 bottom fin-ray. The whole appearance of the fish golden as 
 distinguished from the silvery appearance of the Roach. [The 
 specimen from which the above colouring was taken was a 
 Slapton Ley fish weighing about i^ Ibs., caught by W. G. F. 
 Whittingstall, Esq., October, 1885.] 
 
 The Roach. Length of head, -i-th of total length (including 
 head, body, and tail-fin to the extremity). Muzzle rather 
 sharp. Nape of neck rising abruptly. Depth of body at 
 broadest part only equal to more than the length of the head, 
 and equal to of the entire length of the fish, head and tail- 
 fin included. Dorsal-fin commencing exactly over commence- 
 ment of pectoral-fin ; ist ray midway between point of nose 
 and end of fleshy part of tail. Scales in lateral line, 43 ; in 
 oblique line at widest part of body, 12. Teeth pharyngeal (in 
 the throat). Colours : back, dull olive, or brownish-green ; 
 cheeks and sides silvery, with a patch of orange on each cheek 
 and just over the eye ; belly, white; irides, orange-red. Ventral- 
 and anal-fins bright crimson, ventrals brightest. Pectoral-fins 
 paler crimson, mixed with a little orange and green ; back-fin and 
 tail-fin darker tint of crimson, mixed with a good deal of green. 
 [This is the full colouring of a Thames Roach of about 
 Ibs. weight, taken at the end of October or beginning of 
 November last at Marlow. A slight tinge of gold, perceptible 
 all over the head and gill-covers, increases as the fish gets 
 older, the sides also become less silvery.] 
 
THE DACE 1 AND THE CHUB. 2 
 
 gg"gg^ H E Dace, leuciscus vulgaris, or common 
 Dace, is the typical fish of the gemis 
 leziciscus, which contains in addition the 
 Chub, the Roach, the Rudd, the Bleak, 
 the Minnow, and the Graining, the last-named 
 fish being so exceedingly rare as to possess little 
 interest, except from the naturalist's point of view. 
 The Dace on the contrary is constantly met with 
 and from its game qualities when hooked is well 
 worthy of the fisherman's notice. It is a bright 
 graceful fish, glancing about in the clear quiet 
 streams with which the southern counties of Eng- 
 land especially abound, and which are often barren 
 of Trout or Salmon. Moreover it is in full season 
 in October, November, December, and January, 
 when the Trout are spawning or preparing for the 
 process, and thus a red-letter day's sport is often 
 to be obtained, which would otherwise have had 
 
 1 Leuciscus vulgaris. Leuciscus, Gr. for Dace ; the diminutive 
 of ieukos, white ; vulgaris, common, Lat. 
 
 3 Leuciscus cephalus. Leuciscus, a Dace, cephale, the head, Gr. 
 
o 
 
 < 
 q 
 
 w 
 
BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 139 
 
 to be left blank in the angler's diary. As a live- 
 bait for Pike also it is especially worthy of notice, 
 its scaling being brilliant, so as to be easily seen 
 in thick water, and its entire appearance glittering 
 and attractive. 
 
 This " silveryness," combined with its compara- 
 tively rounded or cylindrical conformation of body 
 renders it a matter of ease to distinguish it at a 
 glance from its congeners, the Roach, Rudd, and 
 Bleak, which are all flattened at the sides, and also 
 from the other species of the Carp family in which 
 the colouring is either golden or bronze, or darker 
 as in the Barbel or Tench. There is, however, 
 one allied species, and, so to say, 'next door 
 neighbour,' from which the non-naturalist is often 
 easily perplexed to distinguish the Dace. When 
 the Chub is not full grown its resemblance to the 
 Dace is so strong that I have often known ex- 
 perienced fishermen at fault in determining posi- 
 tively whether the fish which they had caught was a 
 large Dace or a small Chub. By bearing the 
 following rule in mind no fisherman need ever be 
 in doubt as to the fish he has in his basket : The 
 hinder margin of the anal fin of the Chub is 
 convex, and of the Dace concave ; this fin in the 
 Dace is usually of a pale greenish white, with a 
 very slight tinge of red in the Chub it is of a 
 brilliant pink colour. 
 
 In adult specimens, the size of the Chub is, of 
 course, generally a sufficient distinction without 
 
140 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 referring to particular marks. The whole fish 
 moreover rapidly assumes a bronzed or golden 
 appearance in place of the silvery tinting which 
 the Dace retains in its original brilliancy to the last. 
 
 Between Dace and Chub, and any other fish of 
 the same genus no comparison, as I have observed, 
 can well arise, as all these latter (with one only 
 exception the Minnow) are what might be termed 
 in one sense flatfish i.e., narrow across the back 
 and compressed at the sides. The former, on the 
 contrary, are plump and generally round shaped, so 
 to speak, as to the body. 
 
 The Dace rises freely at the artificial fly, a 
 small red worm being generally considered the 
 best natural bait for it ; gentles, paste, caddis- 
 worms, &c. are, however, not unfrequently taken. 
 It spawns about June and is exclusively a river fish. 
 
 Of the Chub as a " sporting" fish less can 
 probably be said with truth than of its congener, 
 but it grows to a far greater size, and from its 
 being one of the comparatively few species of 
 coarse fish which will take the fly kindly is worthy 
 of more consideration from the fisherman's point 
 of view than has often been bestowed upon it. 
 As its specific name the "headed dace" implies, 
 it is in its movements and appearance somewhat 
 slow and clumsy, though withal, a stately and 
 handsome fish when large and in good condition ; 
 yet I cannot but think that the fashion with old 
 
H 
 PQ 
 
 a 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 141 
 
 writers of painting the Chub as a sort of water 
 donkey must have either lacked sufficient founda- 
 tion, or else that the Chub of our ancestors were 
 somehow different from those with which we are 
 acquainted. At any rate most of those who have 
 tried it will probably agree as to the difficulty of 
 filling a creel with the specimens produced by our 
 Metropolitan river. Possibly, however, the fish 
 of the Thames may be better educated than those 
 of less classical streams. 
 
 For one thing I can vouch, that a fish of 
 quicker sight than the Chub does not swim in 
 English waters. The slightest gleam of the rod 
 the shadow of the swallow flitting over his quiet 
 corner and down he goes like lead ; so quickly, 
 in fact, that the eye utterly fails to detect the precise 
 movement of his disappearance or ' order of going.' 
 Add to this extreme quickness of perception the 
 woody nature of the haunts in which he is to be 
 found and the fact that the successful Chub-fisher 
 must be prepared to cast his fly to within a few 
 inches of the boughs often into a space the size 
 of his hat under penalty of losing either his fish 
 or his tackle, and it will be conceded that the task 
 is no easy one. In fact in this school not a few of 
 the masters of the craft have passed their appren- 
 ticeship. To show how acute is the sight of the 
 Chub, a gentleman who is a most successful bait- 
 fisher on the Thames, and who recently gained a 
 prize offered by the Piscatorial Society in con- 
 
i 4 2 THE SPORTING FISH 
 
 sequence of the heavy baskets he made, informed 
 me that by covering his face and head with some 
 sort of mask he was enabled to look over the edge 
 of the bank unperceived, and could thus guide his 
 bait into the jaws of the fish he wished to catch 
 and watch them take it. If he attempted the same 
 process unmasked, the Chub were instantly 
 alarmed and ceased biting, or made off altogether. 
 
 When once hooked, and the first powerful rush 
 for the boughs checked, the Chub seldom escapes, 
 having remarkably tough and gristly jaws, or being 
 as it is termed " leather mouthed." 
 
 In the earlier part of summer the fish is to 
 be found in the sharpest and swiftest streams, into 
 which it rushes to recover strength after the 
 spawning exhaustion of May. In June and July 
 it moves into deeper waters, especially below banks 
 hung with trees or bushes, and will be there found 
 until October or November when it takes up its 
 winter quarters, in quiet swims, under willow beds, 
 amongst roots, by sunken piles, or in any other 
 cover affording good shelter. 
 
 The chocolate, almost black, tint of back and 
 tail of the Chub are very conspicuous in the water, 
 where indeed it often causes it to be distinguished 
 from the dace and other fish even before it has 
 taken the fly or bait. The lips are also peculiar in 
 colour, being so white as (when opened) to be 
 easily perceived at the surface, even at the distance 
 of i o or 15 yards. 
 
OF GREAT BRITAIN. 143 
 
 The Chub is tolerably equally distributed 
 throughout most parts of the United Kingdom. 
 It is the Penci or Cochgangen of Wales, and the 
 Skelly of Scotland and of the Cumberland lakes, 
 though by no means to be confounded with the 
 U Is water Schelly or Gwyniad. The Chevin is also 
 another local name for the Chub. 
 
 Characteristics of the Dace. The whole length of the fish, 
 body, head, and tail-fin being considered as 5, the length of the 
 head alone is about as i ; depth of body about the same as 
 length of head. Back-fin commencing half way between point 
 of nose, and end of fleshy portion of tail. Tail-fin small and a 
 good deal forked. Scales smaller than those of Chub, 50 in 
 lateral line. Colour : back dark olive, or brownish green, 
 becoming rapidly silver on the side ; belly white ; cheeks gill- 
 covers and eyes silvery with a touch of bronze; pectoral and 
 ventral-fins pale green and pink ; anal-fin greenish white with a 
 slight tinge of red ; back-fin and tail-fin same colour as back. 
 
 Characteristics of the Chub. The whole length of the fish, 
 body, head and tail-fin being considered as 5, the length of the 
 head alone is a little more than as i ; depth of body a little 
 greater than length of head, which is rather blunt at the muzzle. 
 Back-fin commencing half-way between point of nose and 
 extremity of tail-fin, and rather nearer the tail. Tail-fin large 
 and somewhat forked. Scales very large; 44 or 45 in the lateral 
 line. Colour of a Thames Chub about 2 Ibs. weight taken in 
 October : Back and back of head brown. Tail-fin olive-brown 
 with darker brown margin; back-fin olive-brown all over; 
 pectorals bronzy olive-green ; ventral- and anal-fins brilliant 
 reddish-pink. Cheeks and irides golden greeny-bronze ; belly 
 silvery white, getting more golden on sides, and then golden- 
 bronze towards the back. Margin of each scale being darker 
 than the rest. [The sides are more silvery when the fish is 
 young, becoming bronzed or golden as it attains maturity ; 
 the back-fin and tail-fin are also greener when young.] 
 
THE BLEAK. 1 
 
 H E last of the leuciscinivr "Dace Genus" 
 which may be considered entitled to 
 mention amongst British sporting fish, 
 is the Bleak, leuciscus alburnus, a deri- 
 vative from the Latin albus, white, the " White 
 Dace." 
 
 The Bleak is so common throughout England 
 and in most rivers producing Roach and Dace, 
 that a detailed description of its characteristics 
 would be superfluous 
 
 " Quis non et virides vulgi solatia Tineas 
 Norit, et ALBURNUS praedam puerilibus hamis ? " 
 
 It may be pointed out briefly, however, that it is 
 the only one of our freshwater fish which is in 
 shape narrow as well as flat. Rudd, Roach, and 
 Bream are all more or less flattened or compressed 
 at the sides, as pointed out, but they are also 
 broad, i.e., deep from the back to the belly, and 
 
 1 Leuciscus alburmis. Leuciscus , a Dace, Gr. ; albus^ white, 
 Lat. 
 

 PQ 
 
 W 
 E 
 
 E-i 
 
BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 145 
 
 in this particular show a striking contrast to the 
 Bleak, which is almost sprat-like in appearance. 
 
 The term Bleak, having reference to its shining 
 white scales, is taken from a northern word signi- 
 fying to bleach or whiten, blik (Danish), blick, 
 (Swedish and German), " glance," " glimmer." 
 Indeed, this brilliant scalure appeared, some years 
 ago, not unlikely to lead to its total destruc- 
 tion. A silvery pigment is found on the under 
 surface of the scales, from which they derive their 
 metallic lustre ; and this colouring matter was 
 universally used in the bead trade for imparting a 
 pearly tint to their wares. 
 
 So great was at one time the demand, when the 
 fashion of wearing imitation pearls was at its 
 height, that the price of a quart measure of scales 
 varied from one guinea to five. At one factory 
 alone, in Paris, 10,000 pearls were issued per 
 week ; and when it is considered that each pound 
 of scales cost the lives of 4,000 fish, and that this 
 pound only produced four ounces of pigment, some 
 estimate of the destruction effected amongst the 
 Bleak may be formed. Roach and Dace, and 
 some other fishes also furnished a colouring sub- 
 stance, though of inferior quality, the best of all 
 being procured from the Whitebait. 
 
 The Bleak swims usually in large sculls or 
 shoals, and spawns in May. In length it seldom 
 exceeds six or seven inches, and i exclusively, so 
 far as my experience goes, a river fish. 
 
 L 
 
i 4 6 BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 
 
 The following are the principal measurements, 
 &c., of a Thames Bleak, which formed the subject 
 of the illustration : 
 
 The whole length of the fish, head, body and tail-fin, being 
 considered as 6, the length of the head alone is about as i ; 
 head small and delicate, and having the under jaw projecting. 
 Depth of body at shoulder somewhat greater than length of 
 head. Back-fin commencing nearly half-way between point of 
 nose and extremity of tail-fin, and much further back than the 
 ventral fins (in the Dace the back-fin commences just over the 
 ventrals). Scales rather small and very easily detached; 52 in 
 lateral line. Sides compressed or flattened; back very little 
 convex ; belly more convex. Colour : back, back-fin, and tail- 
 fin, bluish-green, [in some waters darker, and in others almost 
 pea-green] pectoral, and anal fins a lighter tint of the same ; 
 ventral-fins white ; sides and belly shining silvery white, with a 
 slight tint of green when held in particular lights. Eye golden 
 yellow with a green tinge. 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 MONGST the works of a quasi scien- 
 tific character to which an age that is 
 4 nothing if not utilitarian ' has given 
 birth, essays on Natural History more 
 or less popularized have received a markedly 
 favourable reception from the public. None of 
 these, however, if I except a work of my own, 
 'The Angler- Naturalist/ published in 1863, and 
 now out of print, have, so far as I am aware, 
 been specially devoted to Ichthyology, whilst for 
 the most part what has been written on the subject 
 has appeared in a detached or fragmentary form, 
 the information furnished being either too diffuse 
 and overlaid with technicalities to suit the require- 
 ments of the beginner, or too scanty and incom- 
 plete to be of any assistance to the more advanced 
 student. 
 
 Thus it results that the "science of fish" is still 
 far from being as widely understood and appre- 
 ciated, as, amongst a nation of sportsmen, might 
 have been naturally expected; and the young 
 
148 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 angler, who would fain be also a naturalist, would 
 probably find himself not a little perplexed in at- 
 tempting to arrive, by the aid of existing manuals, 
 at any clear general conception of a subject which, 
 if stripped of needless difficulties and plainly 'set 
 before him, he would have easily mastered. 
 
 The value to the fisherman of even a moderate 
 acquaintance with ichthyology can hardly be exag- 
 gerated. Not only is it of the utmost practical 
 assistance, by the insight which it affords into the 
 habits, food, spawning-seasons, &c., of the several 
 fish and consequently into what are likely to be 
 the best means of taking them but it also doubles 
 the pleasure of success. The most insignificant 
 captures have to the naturalist an interest of their 
 own, apart from their mere weight in avoirdupois* 
 He is able to identify the various species he meets 
 with, many of which would otherwise pass unre- 
 cognized, to distinguish their sexes, ages, and 
 conditions, and to read with an intelligent eye the 
 mysteries of this beautiful page of Nature. 
 
 In spite of the advance of Fish-science, there 
 are still many moot points and disputed theories 
 connected with it which require elucidation, pro- 
 bably also many new varieties of fish yet to be 
 discovered, and it may often be within the power 
 of the angler-naturalist to observe and accurately 
 describe characteristics and peculiarities of the 
 highest interest to science. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, these inducements, 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 149 
 
 it is astonishing how many there are, calling them- 
 selves sportsmen, who are content to remain all 
 their lives simply Killers of fish of the habits, 
 idiosyncrasies, and often of the specific names of 
 which they are ignorant. This observation is 
 even in some degree applicable to old and expe- 
 rienced fishermen. " Names are the representatives 
 of things ; if a man does not know the names of 
 things in the water he may sit by it all his lifetime 
 without gaining much information for himself, and 
 absolutely none that he can convey to others. 
 The alphabet of science is its technicalities ; and 
 consequently the unlearned sitter by the water is in 
 an exactly similar position to the man who attempts 
 to study a book without having first acquired his 
 A B C." 
 
 Thus wrote a man who was both an enthusiastic 
 fisherman and a thorough practical ichthyologist, 
 and the lesson he inculcates still has its moral for 
 (I am afraid) the great majority of anglers. To 
 their credit be it said, however, there are very 
 many who aspire to better things, and who have en- 
 deavoured really to qualify themselves for the name 
 of fishermen of the first angling nation in the world. 
 
 I make no apology, therefore, for offering a few 
 remarks on the general outlines of Ichthyology, 
 more especially in their bearing on British sporting 
 fish, and as regarded from the angler's standpoint. 
 
 Fishes are, in scientific phraseology, "oviparous 
 
150 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 vertebrata vertebrate animals bringing forth eggs 
 with a double circulation, and respiring through 
 the medium of water." Of such vertebrata, that 
 is, animals possessing a backbone they form the 
 fourth or lowest class in the great systematic divi- 
 sion of the Animal Kingdom ; and from the fact 
 that the salt waters alone occupy more than seven- 
 tenths of the globe's entire surface, and are in all 
 probability inhabited, stratum super stratum, as far 
 as, or even further down than the rays of the sun 
 can penetrate, it will readily be conceived that fish 
 are not only the most numerous of all vertebrate 
 animals, but must infinitely outnumber the whole 
 of the other three classes. 
 
 In common with other animals of the same divi- 
 sion fish possess a continuous longitudinal ner- 
 vous axis, commonly called the " spinal marrow," 
 situated in the centre of the spine, and composed 
 of four parallel columns, one pair of which receive 
 the nerves of sensation, coming from the surface 
 of the body, and the other pair form the roots of 
 the nerves of volition, or action, in connection with 
 the muscles governing the movements of the fish. 
 The vertebrce, or joints of the spine, forming the 
 backbone, in which this nervous axis lies, are in 
 many fishes wholly gristly, or cartilaginous, but in 
 others more or less bony. The term " spinal co- 
 lumn " includes both the nervous axis, or spinal 
 marrow, and its envelope. 
 
 By an enlargement of the anterior, or more for- 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 151 
 
 ward, end of the nervous axis the brain is formed, 
 with which the nerves of smell, sight, taste, and 
 hearing are connected. Immediately under the 
 spinal column, and divided from each other by 
 their membranes, are situated the organs of respi- 
 ration, circulation, digestion, excretion, and also, 
 when it exists, the air- or swim-bladder. This 
 type of structure is common to all vertebrate 
 animals ; but the peculiar attribute of Fishes is, 
 that in them the function of respiration, or oxygen- 
 ation of the blood, is performed through the me- 
 dium of water, not merely temporarily, but during 
 the continuance of life. 
 
 Duly to apprehend the various * plans ' on which 
 fish are constructed requires a thorough acquain- 
 tance with piscine organization in all its forms. 
 Even a condensed treatise on such a subject would 
 necessarily occupy a volume. In the present out- 
 line, therefore, I shall only attempt to bring before 
 the reader the general characteristics and most 
 remarkable features, his attention being more par- 
 ticularly directed to those organs upon the modifi- 
 tions of which the classification of the various 
 families and species, especially of fresh-water fish, 
 is based. 
 
 The first and most important function of fish 
 and all other animals is breathing. For the pur- 
 pose of breathing fish are provided on each side of 
 
152 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 the neck with gills (branchice, Latin), consisting of 
 arches of bone, to which the filaments, or spongy 
 portions, of the gills are attached, and having 
 their surfaces covered by a tissue of innumerable 
 blood-vessels. 
 
 Of these branchial or gill-arches, there are in 
 fish five, of which four support the gills, the fifth 
 being appropriated to the " dentiferous pharyn- 
 geal arch," a long arch in the throat, bearing teeth. 
 In breathing the water is taken in at the mouth, 
 and, after passing through the gills, is allowed to 
 escape behind by the gill-openings. In its passage 
 through the gills and gill filaments, the water im- 
 parts to the latter the oxygen of the air which it 
 contains, and receives carbon in return, as in the 
 lungs of an air-breathing animal. The gills do not 
 decompose the water, so as to derive oxygen from 
 it, but merely separate the oxygen from the com- 
 mon air contained in the water. Hence, if water 
 is deprived of this air, or impregnated with un- 
 wholesome gases, fish cannot exist in it. 
 
 The gills also possess the power of imbibing 
 oxygen not only from the portion of the air which 
 is mixed with the water, but also directly from the 
 atmospheric air itself; and this process may fre- 
 quently be noticed in a vivarium, or other recep- 
 tacle for fish, where the water is foul, or not 
 changed sufficiently often, when the fish will be 
 observed to remain for long periods together with 
 their noses protruding out of the water. The 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 153 
 
 great majority of fishes, however, cannot continue 
 to breathe in atmospheric air alone beyond a very 
 limited period, as, without the aid of fluid, the 
 leaves of the gills, or gill filaments, shortly become 
 stuck together, when, of course, the air cannot 
 pass between them, and they lose the power of 
 imbibing oxygen. From this results the gasping 
 of fishes out of water, which is the effort of nature 
 to separate the gill filaments. 
 
 The blood is propelled to the gills by the heart, 
 which thus answers to the right ventricle of warm- 
 blooded animals ; and from the gills it is sent to 
 an arterial trunk, lying immediately under the 
 backbone, forming the left or systemic ventricle 
 of the heart, which sends the blood throughout 
 the body. 
 
 In intimate connection with the organs of res- 
 piration occurs the question of the blood tem- 
 perature. 
 
 The consumption of oxygen in all fishes is 
 comparatively small, which may be the cause of the 
 cold nature of their blood. The temperature of 
 the bodies of fish that swim near the bottom is 
 seldom more than two or three degrees higher than 
 that of the water at its surface. In surface-swimmers 
 a temperature of 10 Fahr. above that of the water 
 has been occasionally found ; and it may be re- 
 ceived as a general law, that those fish which swim 
 near the surface have a high standard of respira- 
 
154 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 tion (and, therefore, of temperature), die rapidly 
 on being taken out of the water, and have flesh 
 prone to quick decomposition, and vice versa. Two 
 better examples of these laws could not perhaps be 
 given than those of the Bleak, a surface-swimmer, 
 and the Tench, a ground-swimmer. Amongst sea- 
 fish, Mackerel, Salmon, and Herrings may be 
 quoted as instances of the former law, and Eels, 
 Flat Fish, and Skate, of its converse. 
 
 With a low standard of respiration, and tenacity 
 of life, is connected the extraordinary power exhi- 
 bited by some species of sustaining extremes of 
 high and low temperature. The Gold fish lives 
 and thrives in water as high as 85 Fahr. Fishes 
 exist in the hot springs and baths of various coun- 
 tries, ranging from 113 to 120; and in South 
 America Humboldt states that he saw fish thrown 
 up alive, and apparently in health, from the bottom 
 of a volcano, along with water and heated vapour 
 which raised the thermometer to 210, or two 
 degrees below boiling point. On the other hand, 
 in parts of Europe and North America, Perch and 
 Eels, and several species of Carp, are not uncom- 
 monly frozen and thawed again, and even trans- 
 ported from place to place in a frozen state, with- 
 out injury to life. 
 
 Passing to the senses with which fish are en- 
 dowed, we come, as first in importance, to the 
 sense of Sight. The eyes of fish occupy entirely 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 155 
 
 different positions in different species, in some, 
 such as the Skate, being placed high up, near the 
 top of the head, and in others, as the Pike, lower 
 clown on the side of the head (the more frequent 
 situation), their position, however, being always 
 adjusted to suit the habits of the particular fish. 
 The external surface of the eye itself is nearly flat, 
 but the lens is spherical a structure which, in a 
 dense medium, affords the greatest power of vision 
 at short or moderate distances, rather than a very 
 long sight. When water is clear and undisturbed, 
 however, the sight of fishes is very acute ; and for 
 this reason it is that a ruffled water is always pre- 
 ferable to a smooth one for purposes of fishing. I 
 believe that the sight of fish in clear water is 
 longer than is generally supposed. Standing by 
 the side of a Scotch loch in bright calm weather I 
 have occasionally noticed Pike basking at some 
 not inconsiderable distance from the shore, and 
 could plainly perceive that the observation was 
 mutual. The fish, after apparently regarding me for 
 a few moments, has generally backed slowly away 
 into the deep water, disappearing so motionlessly 
 if I may use the expression that the eye was 
 hardly aware of his retreat until becoming conscious 
 that he had vanished. Moreover it is well known 
 that a basking Chub will sink like a stone upon 
 the flitting of a swallow across the river ; that in 
 ponds where Carp are habitually fed by visitors, 
 the former will follow the latter about for the ex- 
 
156 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 pected largesse; and that instances have been 
 authenticated in several cases under my own ob- 
 servation in which fish evidently recognized 
 their keepers, as well by sight as by sound : thus 
 clearly leading to the inference that, at any rate 
 in many positions, when we can see the fish, the 
 fish can see us a hint to the fisherman worth 
 noting. 
 
 We next come to the sense of Hearing. Much 
 has been written at different times by clever ana- 
 tomists on the subject of the sense of hearing in 
 fish, some denying it entirely, and others asserting 
 its existence in a greater or less degree. The 
 former base their arguments mainly on the ab- 
 sence, in most species, of any external auricular 
 orifice, and the latter upon the internal structure 
 of the head, and practical experiment. 
 
 The probabilities of the question would appear 
 to be with those who maintain the existence of the 
 sense, inasmuch as fish, though generally wanting 
 the Eustachian tube, and tympanal bones, have 
 internal ears, or sacs which, if they do not answer 
 the purpose of hearing or its equivalent, cannot be 
 proved to answer any other. As instances of 
 proved hearing in fish, Mr. Yarrell mentions 
 that the Chinese, who breed large quantities of 
 gold fish, call them with a whistle to receive their 
 food. Sir Joseph Banks used to collect his fish by 
 sounding a bell ; and Carew, the historian of 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 157 
 
 Cornwall, brought his grey mullet together to be 
 fed by making a noise with two sticks. 
 
 As regards the sense of Feeling in fish, the rigid 
 nature of their scaly covering renders it probable 
 that in the generality of cases they possess but 
 little external sense of touch. Many of their 
 members are more independent of each other than 
 those of warm-blooded animals. They seem less 
 connected with common centres, " in this respect," 
 as Mr. Kirby says in his " Bridgewater Treatise," 
 " rather resembling vegetables." 
 
 Some of their parts, such as the fins, if muti- 
 lated, can be reproduced, and, indeed, a fish, like a 
 reptile, may be cut and almost dismembered with- 
 out appearing to suffer materially. Thus the 
 shark from which a harpoon has just dragged a 
 portion of its flesh pursues its prey without any 
 apparent loss of appetite or energy, and I have 
 myself hooked the same pike with the spoon-bait 
 three times within as many minutes. 
 
 That fish are wholly destitute of the organs of 
 feeling must not, however, be inferred. Such 
 organs are, indeed, to a certain extent, essential 
 for their self-preservation. The lips in many spe- 
 cies are soft and pulpy ; the mouths of others are 
 provided with barbules, or cirri sometimes called 
 " barbels," or " beards," largely supplied with 
 nerves, and acting, doubtless, as delicate organs of 
 touch, for detecting the nature of the substances 
 
158 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 with which they come in contact. A remarkable 
 instance is observable in the Gurnards, which may 
 be said to be provided with long, flexible, sensitive 
 fingers, to compensate for their bony lips. 
 
 It is an almost universal rule that " bearded " 
 fish, like the Barbel and Gudgeon, obtain their 
 food close to the ground ; and these feelers appear 
 to be given as a compensating equivalent to species 
 which, restricted by instinct to feeding near the 
 bottom of water that is often turbid and deep, 
 must necessarily experience more or less imperfect 
 vision from the deficiency of light. 
 
 Fish are subject to comparatively few diseases, 
 probably owing to the even temperature of the 
 medium in which they exist. They are, however, 
 very liable to external and internal parasites, which 
 (with the exception of those peculiar to the 
 Salmon) generally attach themselves to sick or 
 wounded fish. 
 
 The sense of Smell in fish is considered by most 
 comparative anatomists to be very perfect. The 
 nerves are large, and the extent of the membranes 
 over which they expand so considerable that in a 
 shark 25 feet long.it has been calculated at 12 to 
 1 3 square feet. 
 
 The discrimination shown by fish in the selec- 
 tion and rejection of food, and the preference 
 stated to be exhibited for certain scented oils, &c., 
 have been adduced as arguments in favour of 
 

 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 159 
 
 their acuteness of smell. The nostrils, which are 
 simple cavities near the end of the muzzle, divided 
 by a membrane, are generally pierced with two 
 holes, but both openings lead to the same common 
 canal. 
 
 The sense of Taste is more developed in the 
 herbivorous than in the carnivorous fishes ; but it is 
 in general probably of a low order, as a great part 
 of the tongue is bony, and frequently furnished 
 with teeth, placed there for the purpose of retain- 
 ing food or prey. Obliged necessarily to open and 
 close their jaws in respiring, they cannot long 
 retain food in the mouth when quite shut, and the 
 substance, if of small size, must be swallowed 
 quickly and without much mastication. 
 
 It has been thought possible, from the bony 
 nature of the tongue and the shape of the teeth, 
 which are calculated to assist in conveying food to 
 the back of the mouth, that the sense of taste may 
 reside in the soft, fleshy portions of the throat. A 
 low sense of taste generally, however, would ap- 
 pear to be inferred from the fact that fish are often 
 unable to distinguish poisonous substances, and 
 are accordingly frequently destroyed wholesale by 
 poachers. 
 
 In regard to the organs of digestion, the intes- 
 tines of fish generally are short, and the digestive 
 process very rapid so rapid, in fact, in some of 
 
160 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 the carnivorous species as to have been compared 
 to the action of fire and water combined. 
 
 The process is most rapid, and the intestines 
 shortest, in those species which live principally, or 
 wholly, on animal food ; and the intestines are con- 
 siderably longer, and the digestion proportionably 
 slower, in those which feed on vegetable sub- 
 stances. In some species, such for instance as the 
 Grey Mullet and the Gillaroo Trout, which swal- 
 low their prey whole, the walls of the stomach are 
 thickened so as to afford increased muscular 
 power, and in such species the stomach has a con- 
 siderable resemblance to the gizzard of a bird. 
 The intestines and stomach differ materially in dif- 
 ferent families. The kidneys are situated under 
 the spine. 
 
 The Brain of fishes, which is exceedingly small, 
 is formed, as already pointed out, by an enlarge- 
 ment of the extremity of the nervous axis, or 
 spinal marrow, and is disposed as in reptiles, with 
 the addition of " nodes " or " ganglions " at the 
 base of the nerves of smell. 
 
 The proportionate weight of brain in a Pike, as 
 compared with its body, is as i to 1,300; in the 
 Shark, as i to 2,500 ; and in the Tunny a re- 
 markably stupid fish but as i to 3,700. 
 
 The Swimming- (or Air-) Bladder, is one of those 
 organs which would naturally appear to be most 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 161 
 
 important in fish structure, and which is yet 
 curiously enough absent entirely in many species. 
 Other families have, however, under the spine, in 
 the abdomen, an air- or " swimming "-bladder, 
 varying in shape in the various species, which they 
 can expand or contract at pleasure. This bladder 
 which is more general amongst fresh than salt- 
 water fish is believed to be for the purpose of 
 enabling them to alter their specific gravity to suit 
 the densities, at different depths, of the water in 
 which they desire to swim or suspend themselves. 
 
 Many species, notwithstanding, though wanting 
 this apparatus, have very nearly the same habits 
 as those which possess it ; and in some of these 
 latter there is no external passage by which the 
 air in the bladder can be inspired or expressed. 
 
 Some bladders are composed of a single cham- 
 ber or cavity ; others of two chambers, and a few 
 of three. 
 
 Sexual Distinctions. If we omit one or two 
 species, such as the Tench, there are usually no 
 very obvious external signs by which the sexes of 
 fish can be identified except when in spawn. 
 The distinguishing peculiarities, however, which, 
 with a little practice, will be found useful as 
 guides, are as follows : In the males, the respi- 
 ratory organs, or gills, are frequently larger than 
 in the females, and, on the other hand, the abdo- 
 men or stomach, is smaller. The males may, 
 
 M 
 
162 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 therefore, often be known from the females by 
 their somewhat sharper or more pointed muzzles, 
 by the greater length of the gill-covers, and by the 
 body, from the back fin downwards, being less deep 
 as compared with the whole length of the fish. 
 
 Organs of Reproduction. The productiveness 
 of fish a productiveness compared to which that of 
 every other living creature appears insignificant 
 is limitless as the seas which they are for the most 
 part destined to range. The young produced by 
 one Cod fish at a single deposit have been found to 
 number little short of four millions, and those of 
 a Flounder to exceed one hundred and forty 
 thousand. 
 
 As before stated, with but one or two excep- 
 tions, fishes are oviparous "bringing forth eggs" 
 and the organs for this purpose are of the 
 simplest possible description. As the spawning- 
 season approaches two elongated lobes, or rolls, of 
 roe are formed between the ribs and the intestinal 
 canal, one on each side of the body. These, in 
 the female, are termed hard roe whilst in the fish, 
 and spawn after being deposited ; and in the male, 
 milt, or soft roe, in both cases. 
 
 The lobes of roe in the female consist of a vast 
 number of separate grains, called ova, or eggs, 
 partially glued together, and enclosed in a bag or 
 sac reaching to the side of the anal aperture, through 
 which egress is permitted at the proper time. In 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 163 
 
 the male the lobes of roe are smaller than in the 
 female, and present the appearance of whitish fat ; 
 they remain firm until the actual spawning-season 
 when they become gradually fluid, and are ulti- 
 mately voided in small portions at a time on the 
 abdomen of the fish being slightly pressed. 
 
 At the spawning-time, which differs in almost 
 every species, the fish repair some to the gravelly 
 shallows or weedy banks of rivers and others to 
 the sandy bays of the sea. This is sometimes 
 called " going to hill," or " reading." The female 
 then deposits her eggs, in portions at a time, and 
 the male presses his milt out over them ; and 
 without this impregnation, no vivification, or hatch- 
 ing, can take place ; the eggs could never arrive 
 at maturity. 
 
 A few unimportant exceptions to this rule exist. 
 According to Cuvier, some species of the genus 
 Serranus have each lobe of roe made up half of 
 hard and half of soft roe, and these have been 
 considered as being capable of producing fertile 
 eggs without the assistance of a second fish. This 
 may, however, be very possibly considered as a 
 malformation rather than a natural structure. 
 Perch, Mackerel, Carp, Cod, and some others, 
 have been occasionally found with a lobe of soft 
 roe on one side, and a lobe of hard roe on the 
 other; and in these cases it is probable that the 
 fish are prolific alone. 
 
 The female fish is in some instances attended 
 
1 64 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 by two males, one on each side, so as to secure the 
 impregnation of the greatest amount of spawn, 
 the range of milt being immensely increased by 
 diffusion in water. 
 
 After this process, the eggs are left amongst the 
 gravel, or sticking to weeds or other substances, the 
 glutinous nature of each egg supplying the means 
 of adhesion ; and when the time (which constantly 
 varies) for the hatching of the egg arrives, the 
 young fish breaks the shell, which has become 
 very thin, and escapes. Artificial production by 
 impregnating the eggs taken from- the female fish, 
 with the milt taken from the male is now exten- 
 sively practised. 
 
 There are a few exceptions to the rule of fishes 
 being oviparous. Amongst Sharks and Rays one 
 or two species are viviparous, that is, producing 
 their young alive and complete in all respects. In 
 these fishes, which belong to the cartilaginous 
 series, the organs of reproduction are more compli- 
 cated in their structure than those of bony fish, 
 resembling, in fact, the sexual organs in reptiles. 
 
 A few other species, again, such as the Dogfish, 
 and some of the Rays or Skates, bring forth their 
 young enclosed in bony cases. Their empty shells, 
 known by the names of " mermaids' purses," 
 " skate-barrows," &c., are frequently picked up on 
 the sea-shore, and will be familiar to most of us, 
 though very possibly we may not have been 
 acquainted with their origin. 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 165 
 
 Scales : Formation and Uses. The scales of 
 fish are productions of the skin, each scale being 
 attached to it by its more forward edge, which fits 
 into a sort of pocket or " follicle ;" but the manner 
 in which the scales overlap each other is variable. 
 Those down the side, forming the lateral line, are 
 pierced in the centre with openings, to allow the 
 escape of a lubricating fluid. 
 
 The heads of most fish also possess these 
 openings, or orifices, usually in greater numbers 
 than the other parts of the body ; and thus the 
 mucus or slime by which the scales of the fish 
 are, as it were, varnished, or waterproofed, being 
 exuded from the pores of the head is necessarily 
 carried backwards by the current or, in still 
 water, by the progressive motion of the fish and 
 spreads itself over the whole surface of the body. 
 The lubricating fluid is most abundant in fish with 
 small scales, such as Eels. 
 
 Occasionally the scales are entirely covered by 
 a soft thick cuticle, so as to be detected only by 
 close examination. 
 
 Cycloid, Ctenoid, Ganoid, and Placoid 1 are the de- 
 nominations of the four different kinds offish scales. 
 The first two of these include all the most com- 
 mon forms of scales, and are marked with circular 
 or concentric lines discernible through a micro- 
 
 1 From the Greek words eidos, signifying resemblance, and 
 cycles, a circle ; cteis, a comb or rake ; ganos, brilliancy, and 
 plax, a flat, level surface. 
 
166 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 scope, each line denoting a successive stage of 
 growth by the addition of a fresh layer the 
 smallest, or top layer, having been first produced 
 and the others added underneath. 
 
 In the Cycloids these circular lines are smooth ; 
 whilst in the Ctenoids they are furnished with 
 minute spiny points, or teeth, which, however, 
 usually wear off on the disc of the scale and 
 remain only on the posterior margin. The Ganoids 
 have a hard, shining, enamelled surface and other 
 peculiarities, and are found in some families of 
 salt-water fish. 
 
 The Placoids, which lack the hard enamel of 
 the Ganoids, are scattered over the Rays and 
 Sharks and one or two other groups. 
 
 Modes of Propulsion. The principal organ of 
 motion in fishes is the tail, assisted by the simul- 
 taneous action of the fins. Progression is effected 
 by the tail striking obliquely right and left against 
 the water ; for which purpose the spine is con- 
 structed to bend sideways, or laterally, instead of 
 upwards and downwards as in most other verte- 
 brate animals. 
 
 Bones. To give in detail an account of the 
 bones of the different kinds of fish would occupy a 
 volume. There are twenty-five in the head of the 
 common Perch. Even in the case of the spine 
 the number of vertebrae composing the spinal 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 167 
 
 column varies greatly from sixteen, for instance, 
 in the Sunfish (and fewer in other species) to 162 
 in the Conger Eel, and upwards of 230 in the 
 Electric Eel. The shapes of vertebrae also vary, 
 though commonly their centra, or bodies, are more 
 or less narrowed in the middle like an hour-glass. 
 The ends are cup-shaped, and the cups filled with 
 a bag of gelatine enclosed in a strong membrane, 
 which, being united round the rims, forms a very 
 elastic joint. 
 
 The head in various species differs much in 
 form, but in general consists of the same number 
 of bones as in other vertebrate animals. Of these, 
 the most important to the naturalist are the bones 
 forming the gills, 1 and those constituting the jaws. 2 
 
 Amongst the latter the inter- or pre-maxillary 
 forms in most fishes the edge of the front of the 
 upper jaw, having the maxillary behind it. The 
 situation of the palatine bones is in the roof of the 
 mouth, one on each side of the vomer ; and in the 
 
 1 Opercula (from operculum^ Latin for a lid, or cover). 
 Sub-Operculum. 
 
 Inter-Operculum. 
 Pre-Operculum. 
 
 2 Transverse, or pterygoid. 
 
 Palatal, or palatine bones (bones of palate). 
 
 Vomer (from vomtr, Latin for ploughshare). 
 
 Nasal. 
 
 Superior Maxillary, or maxillary (from maxilla, a jaw, Latin). 
 
 Inter-maxillary, or pre-maxillary. 
 
 Articular portion, &c. 
 
 Dental portion of the lower jaw, or inferior maxillary bone. 
 
i68 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 Perch both these bones and the pterygoid carry 
 teeth. The lower jaw, except in the cartilaginous 
 fishes, has generally two bones in each side : a 
 further reference to these bones will be found 
 under the Division " Teeth." 
 
 The relative positions of the bones composing 
 the gill-covers, or opercula, will perhaps be more 
 easily distinguished by a reference to the accom- 
 panying diagram of the head of a Trout, in which 
 
 A represents ti\t pre-operculum, or fore-gill cover. 
 B, the operculum, or gill-cover proper. 
 c, the sub-operculum^ or under gill-cover. 
 
 D, the inter-operciihim, or intermediate gill-cover. 
 
 E, the branchiostegous rays, or gill rays. 1 
 
 It will thus be seen that the gill-covers consist 
 of four pieces each : \hzpre-opercidum, or foregill- 
 cover, A ; the operculum, or gill-cover proper, B ; 
 
 1 From the Greek branchia, gills, and stegem, to cover. 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 169 
 
 the sub-operculum, or the under gill-cover, c ; and the 
 inter-opercuhim, or intermediate gill-cover, D. The 
 three last of these are articulated, or jointed on, to 
 the temporal bone, and play upon the pre-operculum 
 (a fixed bone), A ; and by the opening and shutting 
 of these gill-covers respiration is carried on. 
 
 The form of the gill-covers is of great impor- 
 tance, together with the fins and teeth, in deciding 
 the classification of fish. 
 
 The branchiostegous rays, or gill-rays, marked 
 E, form a bony fan-like appendage, or fringe, to the 
 lower margin of the gill-covers, to which they are 
 
 attached. 
 
 
 
 The Fins occupy a very prominent place in fish 
 structure, not only as organs of motion but as 
 affording by their nature, position, and number, 
 materials for distinguishing orders, families, and 
 genera. 
 
 The membranes of the fins are usually thin and 
 more or less transparent, and are supported by 
 slender bony processes, or props, called Jin-rays, 
 some of which are composed of single pieces, 
 pointed at the end, designated spinous rays, from 
 their resemblance to spines and thorns : and others 
 of a number of separate pieces united by joints, 
 and called, from their pliant nature, soft or flexible 
 rays. 
 
 Upon this difference in structure the two leading 
 divisions of bony fishes are founded. 
 
170 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 The numbers of fin-rays differ entirely in various 
 species, and, occasionally, in different individuals of 
 the same species. 
 
 The names of the fins are derived from the parts 
 of the body to which they are most commonly 
 attached, as shown in the annexed diagram. They 
 are : 
 
 A. The pectoral or breast fins (so called from being placed 
 on the breast or shoulder of the fish). 
 
 E E. The dorsal, or back fins. 
 
 B. The ventral fins (named from their position on the belly). 
 c. The anal fin (placed close behind the anal aperture). 
 
 D. The caudal, or tail fin. 1 
 
 F marks the lateral or side line. 
 
 This list includes the names of all the different 
 kinds of fins possessed by any fish, though the 
 numbers and arrangements of them vary in almost 
 every family, some fish, such as the Salmon, for 
 instance, having two dorsal fins, and others, as the 
 Eels, lacking the ventrals altogether. The pec- 
 toral fins are considered to answer to arms or fore- 
 legs in other animals, and the ventrals to the 
 hinder legs ; and by means of the former several 
 
 1 These names are derived from the Latin -pectus, the 
 breast ; dorsum, the back ; venter, the belly ; anus, the anal 
 aperture ; cauda, the tail. 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 171 
 
 of the spiny-firmed species are enabled to progress 
 upon dry land, and even to travel considerable 
 distances from one pool to another. The pec- 
 torals are supported by two bones behind the 
 gills, one on each side, which are sometimes im- 
 bedded in the muscles, and sometimes connected 
 with the spine, but more generally attached to the 
 bones of the head. The ventrals are commonly 
 attached to the sides of the belly. 
 
 The Teeth of fish are closely connected with 
 the fins and gills, as furnishing marks by which the 
 sub-genera may frequently be distinguished, and 
 are so permanent in their characters in each spe- 
 cies as to be well worthy of particular attention. 
 
 In different families, however, teeth differ very 
 materially both in situation, number, and form, and 
 also even in different species of the same family. 
 An instance of this is seen in the dental arrange- 
 ment of the several species of Salmonidce, be- 
 tween which they furnish one of the readiest 
 and most reliable means of distinguishing. 
 
 Again we find many families that are almost, 
 if not wholly, toothless ; whilst others possess 
 teeth on all the bones which assist in forming 
 the cavity of the mouth, and even on the bones 
 of the throat, or pharynx, behind these. This 
 latter is particularly the case in the herbivorous 
 fishes. Sometimes the teeth are uniform in shape 
 on the various bones of a single mouth. In 
 
1 72 OUTLINES, OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 other cases they are of different patterns. The 
 most usual form in carnivorous fish is that of a 
 slender elongated cone, slightly curved inwards 
 to assist in holding a struggling prey. In her- 
 bivorous fish the form is commonly that, of a 
 short rounded tubercle with a flat crown, adapted 
 for crushing. Sometimes the teeth are so small 
 and numerous, more especially in insect-eaters, as 
 to have the appearance of the hairs of a brush. 
 Occasionally they are thin and flat, with a cutting 
 edge. 
 
 By these characteristics the habits and food of 
 fish may usually be as readily discovered as those 
 of graminivorous and carnivorous animals by the 
 same means. 
 
 The " throat teeth" in the Carp, Tench, Roach, 
 and Barbel are remarkably large, and would pro- 
 bably surprise most fishermen who have never 
 examined them. 
 
 The teeth are named according to the bone upon 
 which they are placed, as inter-maxillary teeth, 
 maxillary ', vomerine, palatine, &c. The engraving 
 exhibits a front view of the mouth in the common 
 Trout (Salmo fario), which is chosen as displaying 
 the most complete series of teeth amongst the 
 Salmon family. 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 173 
 
 A. Teeth on vomer, or central bone in the roof of the mouth. 
 
 B B. Teeth on right and left palatine bones. 
 
 c. Row of hooked teeth on each side of the tongue. 
 
 D D. Teeth on superior maxillary, or maxillary bones. 
 
 E E. Teeth on lower jaw, or inferior maxillary bones. 
 
 There are also in Ichthyology technical names 
 for teeth of different shapes. The teeth commonly 
 found in carnivorous fish, for example slender 
 elongated cones in form are termed acicular, 
 where stouter, subulate. If teeth are hair-like, and 
 short and densely crowded, they are said to be 
 villiform ; if longer and equally slender, ciliiform ; 
 if stronger and stiffer, setiform, or brush-like ; if 
 still coarser and curved, card-like. When much 
 shorter than the last-named they become raduli- 
 form, or rasp-like. 1 
 
 Conical teeth longer and stronger than the others 
 on the jaw are named canines; and those with 
 broad flat crowns, molars, which is the name given to 
 the large flat teeth of the Carp, already referred to. 
 
 1 Yarrell's " British Fishes." J. Van Voorst. 
 
174 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 These names take their origin from the Latin 
 words acicula, a small needle ; subula, an awl ; 
 villus, a fleece ; cilium, an eye-lash ; seta, a bristle 
 or brush ; radula, a scraper ; cants, a dog ; mo la, a 
 mill. 
 
 FISH CLASSIFICATION. 
 
 Fish are divided into i. Series; 2. Orders; 
 3. Families ; 4. Genera ; and 5. Species. 1 
 
 The two grand series of fishes consist of 
 
 (i.) Those possessing bony skeletons, which are 
 called true, or bony fishes ; and 
 
 (2.) Those which have skeletons of cartilage or 
 gristle, which are called cartilaginous fishes, or 
 chondropterygii. The latter also want some bones 
 of the jaws, and have other peculiarities. 
 
 The TRUE or BONY FISH are divided into 
 six orders, viz. : 
 
 ORDER I. 
 
 ACANTHOPTERYGII, or Spiny-finned fish. (From Gr. acantha, 
 a spine, and/ferjgifaf, a fin.) 
 
 In this order the first portion of the back fin, or first back 
 fin, when there are two, always has spinous rays or supports 
 which are also found in the anal and ventral fins. 
 
 This Order contains Fifteen Families. 
 
 The MALACOPTERYGII, or Soft-finned fish (from the Gr. 
 malacos, soft, and pterygion, a fin), furnish three Orders founded 
 upon the position of the ventral fins, viz. : 
 
 1 Sometimes, for the sake of convenience, Families are fur- 
 ther separated into Divisions or Sub-Divisions, and Genera 
 into Sub-Genera. * 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 175 
 
 ORDER II. 
 
 The MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES, or Abdominal Soft- 
 finned Fish. (From the Latin abdomen, the belly.) 
 
 So called from the ventral fins being attached to the abdo- 
 men, behind the pectorals, without being jointed on to the 
 shoulder-bones. 
 
 It includes five Families, in which are the greater number of 
 our fresh-water fish. 
 
 ORDER III. 
 
 MALACOPTERYGII SUB-BRACHIATA, or Soft-finned Fish with 
 lower arms. (From Latin sub, under, and brachium, an arm.) 
 Named from their having the ventral fins under the pectorals, 
 thus giving the idea of lower arms. 
 
 In this Order, which consists of three Families, the pelvis is 
 suspended to the shoulder-bones. 
 
 ORDER IV. 
 
 MALACOPTERYGII APODES, or Soft-finned Fish without feet. 
 (From Gr. a, a privative, and pous, a foot.) Have no ventral 
 fins, which, being supposed to represent feet, have thus by their 
 absence given the designation of " Footless." 
 
 Has only a single Family. 
 
 ORDER V. 
 
 LOPHOBRANCHII, Fish ivith their gills in tufts. (From Gr. 
 lophos, a tuft, and branchia, gills.) This arrangement of the gills 
 is peculiar to this Order, which, moreover, have the gill-covers 
 entirely closed behind, with the exception of a single small hole. 
 
 Only one Family. 
 
 ORDER VI. 
 
 PLECTOGNATHI, or Fish with soldered jaws. (From Greek 
 plekein, to bind, and gnathos, a jaw.) This Order has no true 
 ventral fins. Many of its characteristics resemble those of the 
 cartilaginous fish. The chief peculiarity is the maxillary bone 
 being soldered to the side of the inter-maxillary, which consti- 
 
176 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 tutes the upper jaw in other words, the jaw-bones being sol- 
 dered together. 
 Two Families. 
 
 The CARTILAGINOUS FISH, or CHON- 
 DROPTERYGII (from the Greek chondros, 
 cartilage, and pterygion, a fin), consisting of two 
 Orders, viz. : 
 
 ORDER I. 
 
 CHONDROPTERYGII BRANCHIIS LIBERIS, or Cartilaginous Fish 
 with free gills. (From Latin bmnchice, gills, and liber, free.) 
 The Fish forming this Order have a single wide opening in their 
 gills, and a gill-cover as in the Bony Fish ; but no gill-rays. 
 
 The Order contains two Families. 
 
 ORDER II. 
 
 CHONDROPTERYGII BRANCHIIS FIXIS, or Cartilaginous Fish 
 with fixed gills. (From the Latin branchice, gills, and fixis, 
 fixed.) These fish have their gills fixed at the outer edges, with 
 a separate opening through which the water from each gill 
 escapes. They have also small cartilaginous arches suspended 
 in the muscles opposite the gills, which may be called gill-ribs. 
 
 They form two Families. 
 
 The foregoing eight Orders are again subdivided 
 into Families, Genera, and Species, as already 
 stated. 
 
 The following List exhibits in a tabular form 
 the classification above explained, with the addi- 
 tion of the names of the various Families : 
 
fc 
 
 
 
 HH 
 
 H 
 
 fr . I-H ffi 
 
 ~ W a 
 
 CO S fe 
 
 CO M 
 
 : . js-sl 
 
 .0 -|^jj |^JS 
 
 F IP 1-3 
 
 g^ I , Sij 
 
 < 
 
 g s.j^ 
 
 II 4 ||^ |1 
 
 c^-n *^ _et? ^ fi d Z .. 
 
 i 
 
 If l 
 
 o 
 
 73 
 
 |IJ 
 
 >.0 : 
 
 3 sr-s 
 
 tn ''v rt T 
 
 "fa S= ft 
 
 u 
 
 PH 
 
 
 
 ^"i^S 
 
 ^1^:1 
 .-iv;a 
 
 l- 1-S 
 
 -g 
 
 11 II 1 ! 
 
 I * 
 
 ^ P. 
 
 fl-i 
 
 . rl-s Is 
 
 
 ^ 10 vo rx oo ON 
 
 O e5 M 4- in 
 
 N 
 
178 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 The following is a classification, according to 
 their families, genera, &c., of fish inhabiting British 
 fresh waters. It will be observed that with the ex- 
 ception of the Lampreys and Lamperns the whole 
 of them belong to the first series, which we have 
 seen consist of the True, or bony, fishes. The 
 Lamperns and Lampreys belong to the second, or 
 Cartilaginous, series of fish. 
 
 In this list I do not include doubtful species, 
 such as the so-called Loch Leven Trout; Gold 
 and Silver fish (the common gold fish of the 
 aguaria) ; Golden Tench ; or Salmo Fontinalis, 
 and other species of an admittedly non-indigenous 
 character, or only recently acclimatized. 
 
 In regard to the technical names of the fish, the 
 first indicates the genus, and the second the spe- 
 cies, as, for example, Perca fluviatilis Perca re- 
 presenting the genus, and fluviatiKs the species 
 the Perch of the river, and so on. 
 
 IST SERIES. 
 TRUE, OR BONY, FISH. 
 
 ORDER I. 
 Spiny-finned Fish. 
 
 Family i. Perches PERCID^E. 
 Species. 
 
 Perch. (Perca fluviatilis^} 
 Ruffe, or Pope. (Acerina vulgaris.) 
 
 Family 2. FISH WITH HARD CHEEKS. 
 Species. 
 Bullhead, or Miller's Thumb. (Coitus gobio.) 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 179 
 
 Rough-tailed Stickleback. (Gasterosteus trac/mrus.) 
 (Five other species.) 
 
 ORDER II. 
 Soft-finned Fish with ventral fins on the belly. 
 
 Family i. Carps CYPRINIM:. 
 Species. 
 
 Common carp. (Cyprinus carpio.) 
 Prussian, or Gibel, Carp. (Cyprinus gibtiio.) 
 Barbel. (Bar bus vulgar is.} 
 Gudgeon. (Gobio fluviatilis.} 
 Tench. (Tinea vulgaris.) 
 Bream, or Carp Bream. (Abramis brama.) 
 White Bream, or Bream-flat (Abramis blicca} 
 Pomeranian Bream. (Abramis Buggenhagii.) 
 Dace. (Leuciscus vulgaris?) 
 Roach. (Leuciscus rutilus.} 
 Rudd, or Red-eye. (Leuciscus eiythrophthalnms.} 
 Chub . (Leuciscus cephalus. ) 
 Graining. (Leuciscus Lancastnensis.) 
 Bleak. (Leuciscus alburnus.) 
 Minnow. (Leuciscus phoxinus. ) 
 Loach. (Cobitis barbatula.} 
 Spined Loach, or Groundling. (Cobitis tcema.) 
 
 Family 2. Pikes ESQCIM:. 
 Species. 
 
 Common Pike, or Jack. (Esox lucius.) 
 Family 4. Salmon and Trout SALMONID^:. 
 Species. 
 
 Salmon. (Salmo salar.} 
 Bull Trout. (Grey Trout, Sewin, or Roundtail.) (Salmo 
 
 eriox.) 
 
 Sea Trout (or Salmon Trout). (Salmo trutla) 
 Common (or Yellow) Trout. (Salmo fario^ 
 Great Lake Trout. (Salmo ferox.) 
 Charrs. 
 
1 80 O UTLINES OF ICHTH YOL OGY. 
 
 Grayling. (Thymallus vulgaris.) 
 Fresh Water Herrings. (Coregoni.) 
 
 (Four species or varieties.) 
 
 ORDER III. 
 Soft-finned Fish having lower arms. 
 
 Family i. Cod GADID^:. 
 Species. 
 
 Burbot, or Eel-pout. (Lota vulgaris.) 
 
 ORDER IV. 
 Soft-Finned Fish lacking ventral fins. 
 
 Family i. Eels MUR^NID^E. 
 Species. 
 
 Sharp-nosed Eel. (Anguilla acutirostris.} 
 Broad-nosed Eel. (Anguilla latirostris.} 
 Snig. {Anguilla mediorostris.} 
 
 2ND SERIES. 
 CARTILAGINOUS FISH. 
 
 ORDER II. 
 
 Fish with Fixed Gills. 
 Family i. Fish with mouth formed in a sucker. 
 
 CYCLOSTOMATA. 
 Species. 
 
 Lamprey, or Sea Lamprey. (Petromyzon marinus.) 
 Lampern, or River Lamprey. (Petromyzon fluviatilis^ 
 Fringed-lipped Lampern. (Petromyzon PlaiieH.) 
 
 To give a practical example of this classifica- 
 tion : The Common or River Perch is a species of 
 the genus Perca, of the Family of the Percida, of 
 the Order Acanthropterygii, belonging to the True 
 or Bony series of fish ; or, in other words, is the 
 first Species, of the first Genus, of the first Family, 
 of the first Order, of the first Series. 
 
f*** 
 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 181 
 
 In conclusion, a few suggestions for enabling 
 the sportsman more readily to identify his fish, and 
 for the treatment of any supposed new species or 
 varieties, may possibly not be altogether out of 
 place. First, then, upon the capture of any such 
 specimen, the best and simplest course is imme- 
 diately to preserve it in methylated (or common) 
 spirit of wine or failing these, any other strong 
 spirit when it can be examined and pronounced 
 upon at leisure. Dried or stuffed fish are compa- 
 ratively useless for scientific purposes. If, how- 
 ever, from any cause it should be found imprac- 
 ticable to preserve the specimen, the next best 
 thing is a correct description in writing ; and to 
 give this with sufficient accuracy to make it of value 
 to science to render it, in short, such that a natu- 
 ralist shall be justified in pronouncing upon it with 
 reasonable certainty all that is required is the 
 clear comprehension and record in an intelligible 
 form of a few simple facts. 
 
 The first point to be noted is the nature of the 
 Fins whether generally soft and flexible as in the 
 Salmon and Carp, or hard and spiny as in the 
 Perch : upon this it depends in which of the two 
 principal divisions of Bony Fishes the species 
 should be placed. This distinction is so obvious 
 and remarkable, that when once mentioned it 
 cannot be overlooked by the least careful ob- 
 server ; and as to one or the other of these divisions 
 belongs every fish, without exception, of which the 
 
i82 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 sportsman takes cognizance, its importance is evi- 
 dent. The spiny-finned fishes contain fifteen 
 Families, but no great subordinate divisions. The 
 soft-finned fish, on the contrary, are divided into 
 three strongly-marked Orders founded upon the 
 position, or absence, of the ventral fins ; and 
 to the first of these malacopterygii abdominales 
 belong the whole of our soft-finned sporting 
 fish. 
 
 The division in which any fish is to be classed 
 having been thus decided, it remains only to deter- 
 mine its family and species. 
 
 As regards family no difficulty whatever can be 
 experienced, there being only four families in all 
 to which it can belong, and these being clearly re- 
 cognizable by the most obvious signs. 
 
 To commence with the spiny-finned fishes : 
 All the sporting fish of this order belong to one 
 Family, the Percidczofi. which the Perch is the 
 type ; whilst those having soft fins are embraced 
 in three families : the Cyprinidtz, of which the 
 Carp is the type ; the Esocidtz, of which the Pike 
 is the type ; and the Salmonidce, of which the 
 Salmon is the type. In regard to these families, 
 again, no difficulty can be found, every species of 
 the Salmon possessing the peculiar characteristic 
 of two back fins, and no other species of the same 
 Order more than one, the Pike, of which we have 
 only a single variety, being totally dissimilar from 
 every other family, and the remaining species 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 183 
 
 without exception belonging to the Cyprinidse, or 
 Carp family. 
 
 To decide with certainty between different 
 genera, or different species of the same genus, re- 
 quires a more minute observation and comparison, 
 according to the " characteristics " which will be 
 found appended to each. The points upon which 
 such minor distinctions depend, and which will 
 consequently be those to be particularly observed 
 and noted, are : 
 
 (A.) The shape of the body, which can be best ascertained 
 by placing the fish straight on a sheet of white paper, and, 
 when it has stiffened, carefully tracing the outline with a pencil. 
 (B.) The relative positions of the fins (see p. 170); and their 
 form, more especially as regards the back- and tail-fins, whether 
 forked, concave, square, or convex, (c.) The form of the head 
 and gill-covers (see p. 168), and their length from the tip of the 
 muzzle to the hinder margin, as compared with that of the 
 whole body, measuring from the tip of the muzzle to the 
 extremity of the tail. (D.) The nature of the teeth and the 
 names, if possible, of the bones on which they are placed 
 (see pp. 171-174). (E.) The colouring of the body and fins 
 of the fish, when first caught. (F.) The number of scales 
 forming the lateral line. (G.) The number of fin-rays, or sup- 
 ports, in each fin. 
 
 These, in the tail fin, are counted from the first long ray out- 
 side, either above or below ; and in the other fins in all cases 
 from the first ray nearest the head of the fish. 
 
 The fin-rays are denoted, as in these pages, by placing the 
 initial letter of the name of the fin before the numeral express- 
 ing the number of rays it contains as D. (for " Dorsal") 9 : P. 
 (for "Pectoral") 15 : &c. Take, for example, the fin-rays of 
 the Gudgeon, which are particularly simple : 
 
 D. 9: P. 15: V. 8: A. 7: C. i9. 
 
 Occasionally there are short incumbent rays on the base of 
 
1 84 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 the tail fin, above and below the longest rays, and these are 
 frequently omitted from the reckoning; when they are men- 
 tioned, it is in general in the shape of a fraction placed after the 
 number of the full-length rays, the numerator denoting those 
 above the fin, and the denominator those below it, as in the 
 example. When there is more than one dorsal fin, the rays are 
 enumerated with a line between them 
 
 D. 912 : 
 
 the first numeral having reference to the first, or more forward, 
 fin. 
 
 In the fish having two dorsals, as the Perch, the first is 
 usually wholly spinous, and this is indicated as in the last case, 
 by a line between the two numbers ; when, howdver, there is 
 but one dorsal, of which the fore part only is spinous, the sign 
 -f- is placed between the spinous and soft rays. 
 
 This is also the rule in regard to other fins partly spiny and 
 partly soft : thus 
 
 (Fin-rays of Perch.) D. 15 1 + 13: P. 14: V. 1+5: 
 A. 2+8: C. 17. 
 
 Some of the soft-finned fish have an occasional spinous ray ; 
 and when this is the case their position, &c., should be fully 
 described a perpendicular line after such spinous ray being 
 drawn in the ray formulary. Take the fin-rays of the Common 
 Carp for example : 
 
 D. 4/19: P- 17: V. 9: A. 3/5: C. 19. 
 
 In this instance the fourth dorsal and third anal fin-rays are 
 spinous. 
 
 The form of the gill-covers has been mentioned 
 as one of the points to be relied on for distin- 
 guishing one species from another ; for whilst, 
 owing to circumstances of food, water, or climate, 
 different individuals of the same species will often 
 differ widely from each other, and from their ori- 
 ginal type (in so far at least as regards those ex- 
 ternals which most readily strike an unscientific 
 
OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 185 
 
 eye), the peculiarities of structure of the gill-cover, 
 apparently of little moment, may, from their im- 
 portance and permanence, not unfrequently indi- 
 cate totally distinct and immutable species. 
 
 Any permanent and unvarying difference in the 
 form of the head, formation of the gill-covers, and 
 dental system, coupled with variations of colour, 
 form, habit, or the like, which might otherwise be 
 deemed casual, are held to constitute a distinct 
 species. 
 
 A good example of this difference is seen in the 
 form of the gill-covers of the Salmon and the Sea 
 Trout the hinder margin of the gill-cover forming 
 in the true Salmon almost a semicircle, whilst that 
 of the Sea Trout approaches more nearly a right 
 angle, and both differ somewhat from the gill- 
 covers of the Bull Trout. 
 
CHISWICK PRESS :- 
 
 WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, 
 CHANCERY LANE. 
 

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 Silver, and Colours. 
 A large-paper edition, printed on Dutch hand-made paper, limited to 100 copies for England 
 
 and 50 for America. Small-paper edition Demy 8vo, first edition limited to 500 copies. 
 
 [Just Ready. 
 
 NORTH-COUNTRY TROUT FLIES. By T. E. PRITT. With Coloured Plates 
 of all the best Flies. Second Edition, cloth, demy 8vo, ioy. 6d. 
 
 Now READY. Small 410, 364 pages, cloth extra, IDS. 6d. 
 
 FLY-RODS AND FLY-TACKLE. Suggestions as to their Manufacture and Use. 
 By HENRY P. WELLS. Illustrated. 
 
 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. By "RED SPINNER" (Win. Senior). Imperial 32010, 
 boards, price is., post free. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF FLY-FISHING FOR SALMON TROUT AND 
 GRAYLING. With Notes on their Haunts, Habits, and History. By EDWARD 
 HAMILTON, M.D., F.L.S., &c. Illustrated by a Mezzotint Engraving by FRANCIS 
 SEYMOUR HADEN, Esq., and other Woodcuts. Small post 8vo, printed on handsome 
 paper, cloth extra, 6s., post free. 
 
 AN AMATEUR ANGLER'S DAYS IN DOVE DALE. Being an Account of 
 My Three Weeks' Holiday in July and August, 1884. Imp. 32010, fancy boards, 1$., 
 post free ; limp leather-cloth, gilt edges, is. 6d. 
 
 AN ANGLER'S STRANGE EXPERIENCES. By COTSWOLD ISYS, M.A. Pro- 
 fusely Illustrated. Small 4to, cloth extra. Second and Cheaper Edition, price 3^. fat., 
 
 post free. 
 
 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. By J. J. MANLEY, M.A. With Illustrations. 
 Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 363 pages, leatherette binding, reduced from los. 6d. to 6s., post 
 free. 
 
 THE ART OF TROUT FISHING ON RAPID STREAMS. By H. C. 
 
 CUTCLIFFE, F.R.C.S. Small post 8vo, cloth, price 3$. 6d., post free. 
 FLOAT-FISHING AND SPINNING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 By J. W. MARTIN, the "Trent Otter." Coloured Boards, illustrated, crown 8vo, 
 2S. 6d., post free. New, Revised, and Enlarged Edition. 
 
 BRITISH ANGLING FLIES. By MICHAEL THEAKSTON. Revised and Annotated 
 by FRANCIS M. WALBRAN. With Woodcut Illustrations, and Plates of Natural Flies 
 drawn from Life. Crown 8vo, cloth, price $s., post free. 
 
 FISHING WITH THE FLY. Sketches by Lovers of the Art. With Coloured 
 Illustrations of Standard Flies, collected by C. F. ORVIS and A. NELSON CHENEY. 
 Square 8vo, cloth extra, izs. 6d., post free. 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE ROACH. By the late J. GREVILLE FENNELL. In cloth, 
 price zs., post free. 
 
 FLY-TYING. By JAMES OGDEN. Post free, 2 s. 6d. 
 ESTABLISHED 1877. 
 
 THE FISHING GAZETTE. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY, Price 2d. 
 20 large folio pages Illustrated. Entirely devoted to Angling. If you do not know the 
 paper, send post-card with name and address (and ask for a specimen copy) to the 
 Editor, R. B. MARSTON, 188, Fleet Street, London. 
 
 LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIYINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET, E.G. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 LD 21-100m-8,'34 
 
899577 
 
 BIOLOGY 
 
 6 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY