nine colder he stirs not much, bite at a flag-worm, or at a green gentle: but can positively say no more of the tench, he being a fish that I have not often angled for; but I wish my honest scholar may, and be ever fortunate when he fishes."

The general colour of this species is a deep yellowish brown, frequently assuming a fine golden hue. Its usual length is from twelve to fourteen inches, but instances are known of its reaching three feet. In winter it conceals itself in mud, and seems during that season to fall into a kind of torpidity. Its ova are very minute, of a green colour, and so numerous that nearly 300,000 have been found in a single female of not more than four pounds in weight. The tench is very extensively distributed, occurring over a great portion of the globe. In Scotland, however, it is only an imported species. Its flesh is not much esteemed, being soft, insipid, and by no means easy of digestion. It is extremely tenacious of life.

This fish breeds both in deep slow-running rivers,

* Abramis brama, Cuv.

and in ponds;-it prefers the latter. The most enticing bait is a well conditioned earth-worm, although the angler also uses paste made of bread and honey, wasp grubs, grasshoppers, &c. Boiled wheat serves well for ground-baiting the spot on the preceding night, and some fasten a number of worms to a piece of turf, and sink it to the bottom. When the ground has been thus prepared, and the tackle put in order, the angler should commence his labours by three or four in the morning. Let him approach the place with caution, so as not to be perceived by the fish, and cast his hook, neatly baited with a live and moving worm, in such a manner that the lead may lie about the centre of the prepared ground. The bream is a strong fish, and runs smartly when first struck; but after a few turns he falls over on his side, and allows the angler to land him without much trouble. He is by no means so lively as the carp. The best hours for bream are from four till eight in the morning, and from four in the afternoon till eight in the evening. In the river Trent, near Newark, there are two kinds of bream. The common species is that called the carp bream, from its yellow colour, and it sometimes attains the weight of eight pounds. The other species or variety, regarded by Mr. Revett Shepherd as a nondescript, never exceeds a pound in weight. It is of a silvery hue, and is known by the name of white bream.* The bream,

* Linn. Trans. vol. xiv. p. 587. This is now recognised as a distinct species, under the title of white bream, or bream flat,-Abramis blicca

though rare in Scotland, occurs in Loch Maben. The lakes of Cumberland occasionally produce it of a great size, and, in those of Ireland it has been known to attain a weight of from twelve to fourteen pounds. "A place," says Mr. Yarrell, "conveniently situated for the fishing, is baited with grains or other coarse food for ten days or a fortnight regularly, after which great sport is usually obtained. The party frequently catch several hundred weight, which are distributed among the poor of the vicinity, who split and dry them with great care, to eat with their potatoes. The bream, as food, is best in season in spring and autumn."* It yields, however, but an indifferent diet, and is often cultivated in ponds for the indirect advantage it affords as food for pike.

of Cuvier, figured by Mr. Yarrell in his first volume, p. 340. "Its mode of biting," adds the last named author, "when angled for, is singular; it appears more prone to rise than to descend, and the float, consequently, instead of being drawn under water, is laid horizontally on the surface by the attack of the fish on the bait."

* British Fishes, vol. i. p. 337.

The carp has been named the "water-fox," on account of his subtlety, and the roach the "watersheep," by reason of his silliness. This fish makes good soup, though very bony, and otherwise not much esteemed. The season for roach fishing in the Thames, where the species attains to a larger size than elsewhere, commences about the end of August. "Next, let me tell you," says Walton, "you shall fish for this roach in winter with paste or gentles, in April with worms or caddis, in the very hot months with little white snails, or with flies under water; for he seldom takes them at the top, though the dace will. In many of the hot months roaches may be also caught thus:-Take a May-fly or antfly; sink him with a little lead to the bottom, near the piles or posts of a bridge, or near to any posts of a wear- -I mean any deep place where roaches

lie quietly—and then pull your fly up very leisurely, and usually a roach will follow your bait to the very top of the water, and gaze on it there, and run at it, and take it, lest the fly should fly away from him."* Vast shoals of this species ascend the streams in the parish of Killearn, from Loch Lomond, and are caught by nets in thousands. Their emigration from the loch, however, continues only for the space of three or four days towards the end of May.+

It has been remarked by anglers, that while these fish continue in the streams, and for a week after their departure, scarcely can a trout be taken either with minnow, worm, or fly, in consequence of that species being gorged with the roaches' spawn. Donovan supposes that roach come up in large shoals from the sea to deposit their ova, while Montagu expresses his belief that they cannot exist in sea-water at all. Dr. Parnell remarks, that although the sea is certainly not the natural abode of the roach, yet it is sometimes found there, being carried down from lakes or rivers after high floods. "In the Solway Firth, I saw in the month of June, five examples taken in the salmon-nets; and I was informed by the fisherman there, that in the early part of the season they frequently captured them after a flood." Montagu founds his opinion upon the following fact. A certain small river runs into a large piece of water close to the sea, on the south

*

Complete Angler, p. 218.

+Statistical Account of Scotland, vol xvi. p. 100.
Fishes of the Firth of Forth, p. 108.