38 LAKE BREAM. 



together witli the flour and spices for making the pie and the 

 charge of conveying it to its destination. (Pictorial History of 

 England, voh ii.) The Book of St. Albans is a further witness, 

 that "the Breeme" was accounted "a noble fysshe and a deyntous," 

 for the taking of which particular directions were given. 



This Bream is considered a very shy fish, and as their 

 ordinary habit is to swim in schools, Nilsson informs us that 

 in the season when the fishery is carried on in Sweden, in 

 some of the parishes near the lake where these fish abound, it 

 is forbidden to ring the church bells; that the noise may not 

 drive the fish away. Sometimes the success of this fishery is 

 such that from ten to forty thousand pounds of Bream have 

 been taken at a single haul of the net. 



A reason why this fish is not regarded at genteel tables with 

 us is said to be, that they are furnished with such a large 

 abundance of small bones, which is in fact a double row of ribs 

 corresponding to those of the herring, shad, and pilchard; and 

 it is on this account that the middle portion of the body is 

 preferred to the rest; but in autumn, Walton says, they become 

 *'as fat as a hog," and then they afibrd a not unpleasant dish. 



The time of spawning is about the month of May, at which 

 time the male is marked with rough white spots about the 

 head. In the "Fauna of Norfolk" it is remarked that when 

 preparing to spawn they roll about like miniature porpoises: 

 the water is discoloured by their working; here a nose appears 

 and there a back fin, whilst at intervals a plunge of affi-ight 

 amongst the multitude shews that large pike are busy. They 

 are a positive nuisance from their numbers in many places. If 

 a bow-net is set for Tench, Bream crowd in ere they arrive 

 and exclude them. At first the growth of the young is slow, 

 and they are not readily distinguished from the next species, 

 A. Blicca; but in the course of time they reach to a large 

 size, and, while a Bream of the weight of fourteen pounds is 

 considered of large size, Rondeletius professes to have seen an 

 example that measured two cubits in length, with a foot at 

 the greatest depth. 



That this fish is retentive of life, and especially possesses 

 great power in resisting extreme cold, appears from an instance 

 mentioned by Gesner, and often since referred to. It happened 

 that in Poland a large number were contained in a tank, the 



