THE BREAM. 73- 



darkness of his fins. In suitable waters he attains to a pretty- 

 good size. I have heard it said that in a certain European 

 water, the name of which I cannot now remember, he not 

 unfrequently reacnes the weight of 2olb. ; but in England 

 we have nothing like that, although I once saw a statement 

 in an angling paper that a bream, of i ylb. had been taken 

 from the Trent. Again quoting from the " Fishing Gazette," 

 I note the following lines : — " Two splendid carp-bream 

 were taken from the Trent by Mr. Beck in his eel nets,, scalmg, 

 respectively twelve and a quarter, and twelve and three- 

 quarter pounds." I must, however, confess that I have 

 handled some hundreds of bream, both by netting and rod 

 fishing, and never yet saw one approaching those weights- 

 I did once see a brace that scaled together a trifle over 131b.,. 

 and thought them wonderful fish. A six-pounder is a 

 triumph, while as for a seven or eight pound one, it could be 

 put down as a veritable giant. The general nm of bream 

 that fall to the lot of the average angler, even in good waters, 

 would go fromi two to four pounds apiece, while if the angler 

 succeeded in making a bag of twenty fish that went on the 

 average two and a half pounds per fish, he could set it down 

 as being very good indeed. There is, however, one place on 

 the river Nene, some few miles from Peterborough, where an 

 extraordinary average is frequently made. I once saw a bag 

 of eight fish taken ledgering, the smallest one of which went 

 four pounds, and the largest six ; and I was assured that this 

 was nothing out of the way. There is also another place 

 on the river Ouse, in Buckinghamshire, where bream, reach 

 a very large size, one in particular, that was taken in the eel 

 traps, tipped the beam at nine pounds, and is now exhibited 

 in the natural history department of a small country museum ; 

 and I also know of another case of three Ouse bream, the 

 united weight of which went 2olb. 



This fish does not appear to> be very widely distributed in 

 the rivers of England, being by far the most plentiful in the 

 eastern and south-eastern counties (of course, lakes, ponds, 

 and reservoirs that contain bream are to be found almost 

 anywhere; but I ami now alluding to bream rivers). The 

 Bedfordshire Ouse stands an easy first, if not for quantity, 

 at least for quality of bream. The Norfolk and Suffolk 



