"WITH NOTES ON THEIR FISH. 



119 



Gudgeons are, in habit, gregarious, and during the early spring 

 large shoals of them frequent the waters of the Gade at Hunton 

 liridge. ^yhen watching them from the little bridge that crosses 

 our Avaste-water, I have often noticed that the gravelly bottom of 

 the stream was completely obscured by them, any attempt accu- 

 rately to estimate their number being altogether impossible. In- 

 termixed among the gudgeons, immense numbers of minnows are 

 frequently observable ; they swim about together in an apparently 

 indiscriminate manner ; but when disturbed, the gudgeons will 

 almost always sail olf in one direction, while the minnows select 

 another. The gudgeon is rarely to be met with during the winter 

 months. Mr. Rooper, as stated in his interesting work, ' The 

 Thames and Tweed' (p. 27), believes that they retire to deep 

 holes, probably remaining duriug the winter in a semi-torpid 

 state. 



Every one tells me that when cooked properly the gudgeon is a 

 honne houche not to be surpassed by any freshwater fish. I am 

 sorry to confess, notwithstanding the thousands that frequent our 

 stream, that I have never yet tasted one. 



The Bleak {Leuciscus Alhurnus). — I have not been fortunate in 

 meeting with this little fish in the neighbourhood of Hunton 

 Bridge, but I am informed that it is abundant below the Swiss 

 Cottage, and I believe that it is yet to be met with above Berk- 

 hampstead. The bleak has frequently been described as the fresh- 

 water sprat ; it is a lively, active little creature, and affords 

 excellent practice for the youthful fly-fisher. In appearance it 

 somewhat resembles the dace, but is smaller and more slim than 

 the generality of that species, and can readily be distinguished 

 from it by the backward position of the dorsal fin, and its more 

 decidedly swallow-shaped tail. The prevailing colour of its back 

 is a light green, but its sides and belly are of a shining silvery 

 white. 



The bleak is esteemed as a delicacy for table use ; but in olden 

 times it was considered to be especially valuable as affording a 

 maUriel for the manufacture of artificial pearls. Mr. Yarrell 

 describes this manufacture as follows : * "On the inner surface of 

 the scales of roach, dace, bleak, whitebait, and other fishes, is 

 found a silveiy pigment, which gives the lustre these scales 

 possess. Advantage has been taken of the colouring matter thus 

 afforded to imitate artificially the Oriental pearl. . . . The method 

 of obtaining and using the colouring matter was, first carrying 

 off the slime and dirt from the scales by a run of water ; then 

 soaking them for a time, the pigment Avas found at the bottom 

 of the vessel. When thus produced small glass tubes were dipped 

 in, and the pigment injected into thin blown hollow glass beads 

 of various forms and sizes." So great was the consumption of 

 bleak scales for this purpose, that one Paris manufacturer is 

 stated to have used in the course of a single winter thirty hampers 

 of bleak. 



* lb. vol. i, p. 369. 



