30 THE PIKE-PERCH. 



near the caudal fin, that the blood may run freely, and the 

 flesh in consequence be whiter and more palatable." 



And when speaking of removing the gos from one country 

 or locality to another, Ekstrom farther says : "By reason of 

 his dying immediately after being taken out of the water, it is 

 difficult to transport him, if of any size ; and it is equally so 

 to transplant him by means of the roe, which can with diffi- 

 culty be procured in the deep water where he spawns ; and 

 taking it from the spawning female, although mixed with 

 the milt of the male, which experiment I myself have tried 

 on several occasions, very rarely succeeds. In the sump, 

 or fish-box, he only lives a day or two." Kroyer, when 

 alluding to this subject, testifies to a similar effect, and 

 mentions " a dealer in fish, who at different times attempted 

 to convey the gos alive from Prussia to Copenhagen, but who 

 always failed in the attempt." 



Though the pike-perch is represented as so short-lived 

 when taken out of the water, I do not think he dies quite so 

 quickly as is commonly believed. I judge so from what has 

 come under my personal notice, for those at whose cap- 

 ture I have assisted, have on the average lived an hour or 

 more at the bottom of the boat, in which at the time 

 there was little or no water. Neither do I imagine the 

 difficulty of obtaining mature eggs would be so great as 

 described by Ekstrom ; and I therefore hope the experiment 

 will be tried in England, and that at no distant day the gos 

 will be included in the British Fauna. 



The flesh of this fish is white, firm, and very palatable. 

 It is eaten dried, salted, or fresh. If the latter, it should be 

 dressed (boiled, never fried) as soon as may be after it is 

 caught, otherwise it soon becomes insipid. Though so 



