336 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



included if such a catalogue would be complete. It is very 

 far from being the highest form of the delightful pastime of fish- 

 ing, but it is also very far from being the lowest, and when 

 practised by master hands, touches that vague and limitless 

 region marked upon the map of estimation as ' Fine Art' 



The roach is a popular fish. From the frequency with 

 which the phrase 'the greatest happiness for the greatest 

 number ' appears in newspaper articles we are bound to sup- 

 pose that it represents a great truth. With regard to angling, 

 it must be, in all honesty, applied to the roach (Leuciscus rutHus, 

 or red dace). In point of numbers there is no other descrip- 

 tion of British fish that makes such intimate acquaintance with 

 the hook. It is the pride and joy of the school-boy. Through 

 the successive stages of manhood it stands the friend of half- 

 hours of leisure. Old age, debarred from the more moving 

 incidents of flood, and field, and forest, sits serenely on the bank, 

 and patiently watches the float on its persevering journeys 

 down the favourite swim. In the neighbourhood of our large 

 towns the jaded worker for small wages finds healthy and ab- 

 sorbing recreation after the drudgery of .the day in his evening 

 attempts upon the roach. Let the Thames, Ouse, Trent, and 

 Lea, summer and winter alike, bear testimony to the vast 

 supply of innocent and tranquil enjoyment furnished by this 

 humble little white fish. Nor are the causes of the popularity 

 of the roach difficult to discover. A few may be enumerated. 



The roach is a perennial amongst fishes. The prey of pre- 

 datory pike, perch, trout, and eels, and of certain fish-eating 

 birds, it sturdily declines to be annihilated. Other fish may 

 succumb to disease and pollution, but the roach, though often 

 sorely afflicted by both evils, lingers on long after other species 

 have been driven away, or have floated lifeless to the top. It 

 is a very hearty breeder, moreover, and according to a trust- 

 worthy report, a single specimen has been known to produce 

 8 1, 586 eggs. Then, the roach is to be found almost everywhere. 

 Unless, for purposes of trout stocking, it has been netted out, 

 it may be caught in most English rivers. Large or small, well- 



