58 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
feels when the hounds run into a fox that a valuable prize has 
been secured. The killing is an incident, more or less disagree- 
able ; and it may safely be said that, were the flesh of pheasants 
and grouse no more palatable and nutritious than that of a fox, 
the inducement to make big bags would cease. Were mere 
killing for the sake of killing the motive of sport, what would 
become more popular than rat-hunting ? The perch, therefore, 
has this merit above other fish in the angler’s esteem, that it is 
really excellent on the table. Cooks dislike the perch, perhaps, 
because it is a troublesome fish to prepare, having rough scales 
which must be scraped off, as a preliminary to most methods of 
cooking ; but speaking as one who is exempt from that irksome 
task, and whose function it is to pronounce upon fish as a dish, 
I give the palm to the perch among British fresh-water fish, 
always excepting the salmon. There be many who will 
deem this an unmerited slight upon the trout. Well, it is 
a matter of taste ; personally I prefer perch, unless it be very 
small Scottish burn-trout, whereof I lately devoured five at a 
sitting and wished for more. Clean, firm, and white, destitute 
of that insidious earthy flavour to which fresh-water fish are so 
prone, the flesh of a well-nourished perch taken in pure water 
any time between the middle of June and the end of February 
is equal to all but the best of haddocks. 
We Britishers are a spoilt race: we ransack the earth for 
our ordinary food, as well as for delicacies; but we are wont 
to neglect the abundance at our doors. Given our climate and 
fresh-water area, in almost any continental country the rearing, 
fattening, and capture of perch for the market would be a 
regular industry ; but in these islands we never trouble our 
heads about them. I happen to live on the shores of a 
wide, shallow bay, a kind of backwater of the strong tides 
in St. George’s Channel. Into this quiet retreat shoals of cod 
drop back after spawning, and thousands are caught and sold— 
soft, watery, insipid creatures. By the time they are getting 
to be worth attention they are off into the strong water again. 
