366 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



ly as I could determine, it devoured twelve silver-fins a 

 fish about three inches long in four minutes. If I err 

 in my estimate, it is on the safe side, as it may have been 

 fifteen that were devoured in that length of time. Sub- 

 sequently I captured a dozen of these exquisite minnows, 

 and found that I could not squeeze them into a mass of 

 the size of a rock-fish one foot in length ; and yet the 

 fish did not appear to be distended, though in this case 

 it is very certain that the captured minnows were swal- 

 lowed without preliminary decapitation or other reduc- 

 tion of size, for in that case I should have seen the 

 fragments floating in the clear water. 



A third perch, but one which no longer reaches the 

 size that it did in the days of our grandfathers, is the 

 well-known white perch, or " river-bass." As a little fish, 

 measuring but an inch or little more, it makes its appear- 

 ance in the river in schools of thousands. Preying upon 

 the equally abundant minnows of the same stream, they 

 grow with great rapidity, and by August are very gamy, 

 and large enough for " pan fish." This is the brief, prosy 

 history of a splendid fish. 



Years ago I was satisfied that both the white perch 

 and rock-fish spawned in the clear, cold, upper waters of 

 the river and in certain of the tributary creeks. This, it 

 seems, is not the case. Just where they breed is a ques- 

 tion not yet answerable ; but the " somewhere " is at some 

 distance from the supposed spot, and the little fish, newly 

 hatched, or at least comparatively young, come up the 

 river early in spring, and, once here, remain for more or 

 less time, according to the character of the season, abun- 

 dance of food, and other causes. One point, however, in 

 their habits needs to be dwelt upon in this connection : 

 fish with well-developed ova are frequently found in the 



