THE SUN-PERCH AND THE CATFISH 



not as fertile as we desired. Then we thought of 

 exotic species which, since they did so well in their own 

 native country, offered certain guarantees of plenty and 

 fruitfulness. So we did a job of acclimatization. Now 

 you see the results — a basket full of sun-perch. Not 

 another bite have we had, neither true perch nor bleak; 

 not even a common roach." 



" But it was a good, sound idea all the same," said the 

 son. " The rivers were getting short offish, and it was 

 only reasonable to try and fill them up again. And as 

 you had the opportunity, the fry at your disposal, and 

 the necessary means of transport, you were surely right 

 to make use of it. Besides, you made a good choice. 



Fig. 39. — Pike-perch. The length may be over a yard. 



If you were going to stock the river, it was better to use 

 good stock, strong species which reproduced well, 

 rather than species already on the down grade." 



" When I listen to you," the father answered, " I 

 seem to hear the exact echo of what we used to say, and 

 wrote and printed in our fishing papers. We thought 

 it was splendid, and we started off in fine style. 



" These attempts to acclimatize and restock were not 

 new. The methods had become known ; we had only 

 to apply them, only to profit by experiences hitherto 

 confined to small species. We agreed almost unani- 

 mously to discard species from warm countries, like the 

 barbel and the gourami which, however prolific, could 

 not possibly hope to survive in our cold waters during 

 the winter. We decided on a country, the United 



196 



