THE PERCH. 313 



few shot, sufficient to sink the bait to within three 

 inches of the bottom. When a bite is felt, a little time 

 should be given before striking : when struck, the perch 

 is surely taken, for though he pulls hard for a short time 

 he has neither the fierce courage nor the wily craft of 

 the trout, but succumbs after a few brief struggles. A 

 reel is necessary, and the float often dispensed with by 

 veterans in the art. 



The following very graphic extracts, on perch fishing 

 in the waters of the Niagara river and Lake Erie, are 

 from the pen of probably the best piscatorial writer of 

 the United States, long an esteemed correspondent of the 

 Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, from whose lucubrations 

 I have borrowed largely in my larger works on " Fish 

 and Fishing," and to whom I gladly record my obliga- 

 tion : 



" The Yellow Perch. This beautiful and active fish 

 is almost omnipresent in the fresh waters of the North- 

 ern States. There are probably two distinct but similar 

 species in our country, blended together under this com- 

 mon name. The perch of New England differs from 

 ours principally in the shape of the head. In the Sara- 

 toga Lake, Owasco Lake, Cayuga Outlet, the Flats of 

 Lake Huron, and many other localities, the perch is 

 larger than with us, frequently weighing three pounds. 

 Among the perch of our streams and rivers, a half-pound- 

 er is a very portly citizen though on a few particular 

 bars they are sometimes taken in considerable numbers, 

 14 



