SOME BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 201 



fishing-ground. I found myself hovering in the 

 air " between the de'il and the deep sea," in sus- 

 pense as to whether the pole would fall short and 

 souse me in the water, or send me on to the bank 

 whence I started. But I got into the way of using 



PERCH. 



the pole, though perhaps with neither agility nor 

 gracefulness. 



Our destination was a tributary of the Waveney, 

 where the stream ran pretty briskly. At a par- 

 ticular spot, under willow-trees and pollards, we 

 always found a shoal of perch. It must have been 

 a piscine social club, and the grubs that every now 



