PERCH-FISHING, 243 



ones are to be found in the Hampshire Avon, where I once 

 caught one weighing nearly 2f Ibs. The numbers of perch 

 existing in Windermere and Slapton Ley, Devonshire, are almost 

 incredible ; but their size is insignificant, rarely passing a few 

 inches, and more commonly being still less. 



Even in the Thames, after the first flood has swept them into 

 the eddies and mill tails, I have caught them literally as fast as 

 I could drop in a paternoster. I remember once when fishing 

 behind Temple Mills above Marlow, with Mr. Henry R. Francis 

 and the late Tom Rosewell, we caught upwards of twelve dozen 

 in this way, besides some jack, in a few hours on a late autumn 

 or winter afternoon, and my remembrance is that we only 

 stopped catching them for want of bait. 



The perch of the Thames, which is also noticeable for its 

 fine colouring, probably owes its superior gastronomic attrac- 

 tions to the great purity of the stream above the locks, as well as 

 to the wide range in the choice of food, spawning-ground, &c., 

 which it affords ; but in whatever waters the fish breeds, it is 

 seldom other than palatable as well as wholesome, and it is on 

 this account a frequent item in the invalid's dietary. Izaak 

 Walton, indeed, mentions a German proverb which would give 

 it a very high place as a comestible, ' More wholesome than a 

 pearch o' Rhine,' and quotes a learned authority to the effect 

 that it possesses a small stone in the head thought to be very 

 ' medicineable,' and which was at one time an ingredient in our 

 Pharmacopoeia. 



The perch lives long out of water (resembling in that respect 

 the carp and tench species), and if carried with care, and occa- 

 sionally moistened, will in cold weather exist for several hours 

 in this condition, not unfrequently undergoing a journey of 

 thirty or forty miles without serious injury. Yarrell says that 

 perch are constantly exhibited in the markets of Catholic coun- 

 tries, where they are a popular article of ' fast ' diet ; and on 

 these occasions, when not sold, they are taken back to the 

 ponds from which they came, to be reproduced at another 

 opportunity. 



R 2 



