104 PERCH FISHING CLUB. 



flourished by the side of the bowling green. I 

 never saw it covered as it was in the spring with 

 blossom, without thinking of those pretty lines of 

 Burns 



* Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale.' 

 I will now leave the bowlers to enjoy their amuse- 

 ment, and give my readers some account of our 

 perch-fishing. The stream was admirably adapted 

 for these fish, having rather high banks here and 

 there, with deep holes, into which piles of wood 

 had been driven from time to time in order to pro- 

 tect the banks from the wash of the water from 

 the mill. It is in such places that perch delight 

 to haunt, or under the stumps of old willow pol- 

 lards. In summer they are given to rove, but in 

 the autumn they become gregarious fish, and it is 

 at this season of the year that an expert angler 

 has generally the best sport. Such a one will often 

 try for perch in a good gravel-scour where the 

 water turns freely in, and makes an eddy. Indeed 

 an old angler observes ' that you may search and 



* find him under eddies, hollow banks, pools, miln- 



* pits, turns of streams, at the tails of sluices, flood- 



* gates, and back waters, near to the stumps of 

 4 trees, weir-heads, stanks, candocks, and bull- 

 ' rushes.' He then adds this good advice 



' Now let the angler that would fish r or perch, 

 ' The turns in rivers, and back-waters search. 

 ' In deepest holes the largest perch you'll find; 

 ' And where the perch is, kind will answer kind.' 



