60 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



gills, and scales remaining, broil it over a clear fire quickly. 

 It will come to table seething and smoking. Insert a knife 

 behind the head, and the scales, like a suit of armour, will 

 come off. A little butter, pepper, and salt complete the 

 preparation, and the flesh may be flaked from the bones 

 firm, white, and of most delicious flavour." 



To this it is expedient to add the following warning : that, 

 to be cooked in this way the fish must have been but a few 

 hours at most out of the water, otherwise decomposition of the 

 contents of the stomach and bowels will engender unpleasant 

 consequences. 



Russian markets deal with large consignments of perch 

 fresh, frozen, salted, and dried and these form an im- 

 portant part of the food supply of the country. Except as 

 food, the only economic use to which perch are put in that 

 or any other country is in the manufacture of isinglass, from 

 the dried skins. 



British anglers are accustomed to classify the fresh-water 

 fish of their country somewhat roughly as " sporting fish " and 

 Angling " coarse fish." In the first of these classes are in- 

 fer Perch. d u( ied only fish of the salmon kind, viz., salmon 

 and salmon-trout, river- and lake-trout, and grayling. At the 

 head of the second class it is the custom to place the pike, in 

 virtue of the great size to which that fish sometimes runs ; 

 were it not for that, undoubtedly the highest rank would be 

 assigned to the perch. This fish possesses that degree of 

 voracity which is essential to the angler's success in luring it 

 to the hook. Small fish, worms, floating flies, water insects, 

 and larvae are all in their turn part of its staple diet, and it 

 is very bold in pursuit of them. But, like all fish, the perch is 

 subject to capricious periods of abstinence, when it refuses all 

 food, even in the midst of abundance and variety. From this 

 apparent caprice arises one of the most powerful attractions of 

 angling its uncertainty. Nobody can foretell with confidence 

 the behaviour of fish at the beginning of any given day. They 



