164 ON SURREY HILLS. 



moving room that is, where they kept to the hole 

 itself. " Oh, they are only perch," said my friend, 

 once, as I stood watching them flash about. Just to 

 give me some idea of their numbers, he got his 

 large cast-net and threw it into the hole. The result 

 was a fine haul of perch, nearly all one size half- 

 pounders. " What will you do with them ? " I asked. 

 " Why, turn them out in the water above the mill," 

 was his reply, " and let them grow larger ; " and he 

 proceeded at once to the business. 



Things are changed now, indeed, and perch have 

 become conspicuous through their entire absence. 

 I should like to see them back again in their old 

 haunts ; for one's earliest reminiscences are associated 

 with them, and paddling as a boy in the mill-stream 

 in the evening, after the water had been shut off, to 

 get loaches for baits. What very strict injunctions 

 our rural fishing instructors gave us not to get little 

 ones, only big loaches, because " they'd ketch the 

 biggest fish, fur the little uns couldn't swaller 'em " ! 

 Well do I remember the first time they let me catch 

 a big perch and get him out, "all by myself." My 

 rod was an osier wand, costing one penny at the 

 basketmaker's. I can feel now the funk I was in 



