SIZE OF PERCH, ETC. 99 



pound perch is a fine fish. They have been known to 

 reach nine pounds weight, and in the large lakes of Ger- 

 many and Scandinavia they occasionally reach a very 

 large size. A dish of half-pound perch, however, is not 

 in our less favoured land to be despised. The best day's 

 perch-fishing I ever had was on the Kennet, a capital 

 perch river. I fished with a friend, and we took home 

 thirty-seven perch which weighed sixty pounds many of 

 them weighed two pounds, and some were over that weight. 

 My companion had three large perch on his paternoster 

 at the same time ; he bagged two of them ; one was two 

 pounds, the other two pounds and a quarter, and the one 

 which got away was larger than either of them. We lost 

 a great many fine fish in the course of the day, I in par- 

 ticular losing nearly as many as I caught. I had another 

 excellent day's sport on the Kennet subsequently, though 

 of a mixed character, consisting of pike and perch, and 

 which I have alluded to in the chapter on the pike. 



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