152 PERCH. [CHAP. iv. 



mullet in flavour. In Britain, the fish, left to its natural 

 growth and no care being taken to flavour it artificially, is 

 surpassed for table purposes by the salmon and the trout ; but 

 perch being abundant afford plenty of good fishing. The perch 

 usually congregate in small shoals, and delight in streams, or 

 water with a clear bottom and with overhanging foliage to 

 shelter them from the overpowering heats of summer. These 

 fish do not attain any considerable weight, the one recorded as 

 being taken in the Serpentine, in Hyde Park, which weighed 

 nine pounds, being still the largest on record. Perch of three 

 and four pounds are by no means rare, and those of one pound 

 or so are quite common. The perch is a stupid kind of fish, 

 and easily captured. Many of the foreign varieties of perch 

 attain an immense weight. Some of the ancient writers tell us 

 that the " lates" of the Nile attained a weight of three hundred 

 pounds ; and then there is the vacti of the Ganges, which is 

 often caught five feet long. The perch, after it is three years 

 old, spawns about May. It may be described as rather a 

 hardy fish, as we know it will live a long time out of water, 

 and can be kept alive among wet moss, so that it may be easily 

 transferred from pond to pond. Its hardy nature accounts 

 for its being found in so many northern lochs and rivers, as in 

 the olden times of slow conveyances it must have taken a long- 

 time to send the fish to the great distances we know it must 

 have been carried to. On the Continent, living perch are a 

 feature of nearly all the fishmarkets. The fish, packed in 

 moss and occasionally sprinkled with water, are carried from 

 the country to the cities, and if not sold are taken home and 

 replaced in the ponds. This particular fish, which is very 

 prolific, might be "cultivated" to any extent. We do not see 

 why a fish-pond should not be as much a portion of a country 

 gentleman's commissariat as his kitchen-garden or his cow- 

 paddock. Perch are useful in more ways than are generally 

 known. The Laplanders make glue and also jelly out of their 



