SECTION III. 



ON THE ROACH AND DACE, RUDD AND CHUB, AND OTHER FISHES CLOSELY 

 RESEMBLING THEM IN FORM AND HABITS. 



Roach and Dace. 



Roach and dace, from the similarity of their habits and some 

 resemblance they bear to each other in appearance though about 

 in the proportions of Daniel Lambert to a modern exquisite have 

 been usually classed together, and so will we treat of them 

 here. 



The dace is a fish of a very elegant make, with bright silvery 

 sides ; the back and caudal fins of a pale brown, and the pectoral, 

 ventral, and anal of a clear white. The roach is a much deeper 

 bodied fish than the dace, though the sides are more compressed ; 

 all the fins are of a deeper colour than the dace; the pectorals 

 being of a deep orange colour, and the ventral and anal in most 

 specimens of a bright red, though in some, the latter as well as the 

 pectorals are of a pale orange cast. 



The dace is a very active fish, from which he is said to owe his 

 names of dace, dare, or dart ; the roach is an equally sluggish one, 

 being altogether the laziest fish in the fresh water : even the prick 

 of a hook in his mouth seems scarcely sufficient to arouse his 

 energies. Both these fish swim in shoals, and feed on the same 

 kind of food, only that the dace will take a fly freely on the sur- 

 face, which a roach will not so readily do, though he is not un- 

 frequently taken in that manner. 



Those anglers who care more about filling their panniers than 

 supplying pot or pan, may generally obtain the summit of their 



