84 BREAM FIFTY YEARS OLD. 



dog's graves well broken up, three handfuls of meal, 

 and a little oil-cake. This is all well worked up into a 

 pudding, and worked into balls not quite so large as a 

 child's head, and partially baked in the sun. He pro- 

 ceeds to his hole at daybreak, say three o'clock in the 

 morning, and fishes with the roughest possible tackle. 

 Sometimes these louts will catch nearly a hundred- 

 weight of bream in one morning before breakfast. 

 This then is a good hint for any of our friends who 

 propose to try bream-fishing in Norfolk." 



Dr. Norman also informs me that great quantities of 

 bream are taken in the spring months, especially about 

 April, and sent away for crab and lobster bait. The 

 fishermen use nets with a very large mesh, allowing all 

 but good- sized fish to pass through. Bream in Norfolk 

 were formerly of no value, now they fetch half a crown 

 a bushel ; large roach and rudd fetch the same price, 

 and even more during Lent and the Hebrew Passover, 

 when there is a great demand for these fish at Birming- 

 ham, Manchester, and other large inland towns. 



"When at Norwich in August, 1869, my friend Dr. 

 Norman took me to the shoi3 of Mr. T. E. Gunn, taxi- 

 dermist, Upper St. Giles Street, to see a bream which 

 weighed llflbs. and measured 2ffc. 2in. in length from 

 the nose to the fork of the tail. It was over lOin. in 

 depth. This fish was caught in a j)ond about half an 

 acre in extent at Beeston Regis, near Kmg's Lynn. 



It is most interesting that the age of this fish is 

 known. A gentleman who called upon Mr. Gimn 

 stated that he put it into this pond when very small 

 about fifty years before. This is, I believe, the largest 

 bream on record. Besides the Common Bream there are 

 two other species, viz., the White Bream or Bream Flat 

 {Cyprinus hiicca), and the Pomeranian Bream. 



