THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 157 



CHAPTER X. 



Observations of the Bream, and Directions to catch him. 



PiscATOR. The bream,* being at a full growth, is a large and 

 stately fish : he will breed both in rivers and ponds ; but loves 

 best to live in ponds, and where, if he likes the water and air, he 

 will grow not only to be very large, but as fat as a hog : he is 

 by Gesner taken to be more pleasant or sweet than wholesome : 

 this fish is long in growing, but breeds exceedingly in a water 

 that pleases him ; yea, in many ponds so fast, as to over-store 

 them, and starve the other fish. 



He is very broad, with a forked tail, and his scales set in ex- 

 cellent order ; he hath large eyes, and a narrow sucking mouth ; 

 he hath two sets of teeth, and a lozenge-like bone, a bone to help 

 his grinding. The melter is observed to have two large melts, 

 and the female two large bags of eggs or spawn. 



Gesner reports, that in Poland a certain and a great number 

 of large breams were put into a pond, which, in the next follow, 

 ing winter, were frozen up into one entire ice, and not one drop 

 of water remaining, nor one of these fish to be found, though 

 they were diligently searched for : and yet the next spring, when 

 the ice was thawed, and the weather warm, and fresh water got 

 into the pond, he affirms they all appeared again. This Gesner 



* The carp bream, Abramis Brama, is a very prolific fish, and some- 

 times, as in the Irish lakes, attains to as much as twelve or fourteen 

 pounds weight, thereby justifying Walton in calling it " a stately fish." 

 Bream-fishing is a favorite sport among British anglers, when they have no 

 nobler game ; and the minute directions given by Walton, show that he 

 both loved and understood it. 



The variety of bream which we have in this country {Abramis Chry- 

 soptera) is very small, seldom larger than eight or ten inches, and can, 

 therefore, attract only children. Abundant directions may be found ia 

 the English books, if indeed anything need be added to what Walton has 

 said. — im. Ed. 



