AND ANGLING SONGS. 315 



diversion, when the game is fairly set a-going, and evince by 

 their keenness that, in the sudden dive of the float and the 

 leisurely sailing out of the line, under conduct now and then of 

 a two-pound fish, they experience a fair measure of satisfaction. 

 As an article of food the flesh of the perch is in good esteejn 

 very superior to that of the carp, the tench, the bream, and 

 the chub, and is held preferable by many to the flesh of the 

 common trout. When in season, its firmness and curdy white- 

 ness rival the same qualities as they are displayed in some of our 

 most highly-prized salt-water fishes the sole, for instance, and 

 the red gurnard. One of the drawbacks to its more frequent 

 appearance at the table, results from the supposed necessity, 

 before cooking it, of removing the tough coat of scales and 

 spinous fins with which, for defensive purposes, it is accoutred, 

 an operation, no doubt, which, when performed on a number of 

 small-sized perch, involves a great deal of trouble. In the cook- 

 ing of perch, however, be it known that the flaying operation is 

 against all rule, and contrary to the practice of the experienced 

 cook, whose aim it is, or ought to be, to keep intact the flavour 

 of the fish, and preserve to it its juices and commendable pro- 

 perties. On Lentrathan Loch, and other famed perch-yielding 

 expanses, it is considered barbarous to subject this fish to any 

 other process, before brandering, than that of simply wiping it. 

 Were proper attention paid to the culture of the perch, in the 

 way of an endeavour to improve its size, a step would be gained 

 towards its being more generally appreciated as an article of diet, 

 if not as a delicacy. With a great many of our landed proprie- 

 tors who rigidly preserve the aqueous portions of their domains, 

 a notion prevails that by such a system of conservation they help, 

 not only to augment the numbers, but also to improve the size 

 and condition of the finny stock. They may succeed, I allow, 

 in effecting one of these two objects ; but should they do so, it is 

 at the cost, proportionally incurred, of the other : the increase 



