INTRODUCTION 
for the table. The remains of fish-ponds dating from 
manorial and monastic days go to prove that fresh- 
water fishes and their consumption were more popular 
in those times than they are to-day. Of the anatomy of 
fishes it is not proposed to write at any length. The 
general appearance of a fish’s body is familiar enough to 
young and old alike, and it will be agreed how well 
fashioned they are for the life they lead. Some, it is 
true, are less prepossessing than others. Some are quite 
good-looking, others are very much the reverse. Some 
are fast swimmers and expert hunters, others are of 
sluggish disposition, and seem resolved at all times to 
exert themselves as little as possible. Some delight to 
dwell in a shallow clear-running stream, others are only 
found in deep still pools where it is difficult to follow 
them in their home life. Some revel in a pond or stream 
where there is a profusion of mud, others much prefer 
a clean gravelly bed upon which to disport themselves. 
Some are rarely found far away from water containing 
an abundant supply of weeds actually growing in the 
environment, others are not averse to showing them- 
selves in open situations well away from cover. Some 
species flourish in a stagnant pool (where there is never- 
theless an abundant food-supply), some are quite out of 
their element except in a fast-flowing stream or river, 
others seem equally well at home in either. Some 
appear to congregate more near an outlet to the sea, 
such as an estuary, others seem to prefer a land-locked 
mountain tarn, so high up and so far away from any 
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