130 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
The range of the roach is a wide one, for it occurs as a lake 
and river fish throughout Europe between the Alps and 
Scandinavia, and from the Danube to the waters of 
Ireland. In Scotland it is exceedingly local and 
irregular in distribution, and I am inclined to attribute its 
presence both in that country and in Ireland to the agency of 
man. For instance, in all the hundreds of lakes, great and 
small, in my own district of Galloway, I can only speak with 
certainty of the presence of roach in the two lakes at Castle 
Kennedy. Mr. Harvie Brown has recorded the introduction 
of this fish to the district of Moray in 1886 or 1887, when 
a stock was turned into the Loch of Spynie. Persons who 
own or manage waters containing more valuable fish ought 
resolutely to refuse to establish roach among them. The roach 
in the Castle Kennedy lochs above referred to have multiplied 
to such an extent that the trout-fishing, which was formerly 
excellent, has very much deteriorated. The roach are now 
netted out in cartloads, and applied as manure to the land. 
The roach does not shrink from salt water, and is said 
to abound in parts of the Baltic. Possibly a marine life 
may have a beneficial effect upon its flesh, which has few 
apologists in this country, but in a dried state forms an 
important article of commerce in Russia. In the district of 
the Caspian Sea the annual take of roach was reckoned, thirty 
years ago, at between three and four hundred million, weighing 
upwards of 10,000 tons. The roe, both of roach and bream, 
is extensively used as caviare. Day describes the eggs as 
greenish, becoming red when boiled. 
The roach feeds upon such animal diet as worms, water 
insects, molluscs, and spawn of other fish, but it also browses 
upon vegetable substances. In Britain the spawning 
season extends to near the end of June, but it is said 
to be earlier in more southern countries. At this, not less than 
at other times, roach are intensely gregarious, and so little 
fastidious about their company, as to associate freely with their 
Distribution. 
Habits, 
