NORFOLK BROAD AND RIVER FISHING. 363 



There appear to be three varieties of bream here : the true 

 bronze-coloured bream, or carp bream, which is most sought 

 after, and grows to a large size (I have seen one eleven pounds), 

 the ' bream flat,' a white, dirty little beast which shows no fight ; 

 and a hybrid fish, supposed to be a cross between a bream and 

 a roach. 



As up to a certain point the preparations for bream and 

 roach fishing are the same, it will be convenient to give one 

 description of them, and separate descriptions of the subsequent 

 proceedings. The most noticeable part of the outfit of the 

 Norfolk angler is the huge ' frail,' or flexible basket which is 

 intended to hold his catch. He has also a hoop net, which is 

 intended to hang over the side of the boat in the water, and 

 is to contain the fish and keep them fresh while the fishing 

 is going on. Into this they are dropped one by one without 

 any merciful knock on the head, and there in a struggling mass 

 they suffer slow suffocation until the time comes for the catch to 

 be counted and weighed. He has a bundle of rods and a large 

 tackle-case, his shabbiest clothing and warmest coats, for he 

 has to sit still for many hours. His boat is rough in appear- 

 ance, but it is steady and safe, and extremely inexpensive to 

 hire a shilling or eighteenpence a day being the riverside 

 charge. In the boat are two strong mooring-poles about seven- 

 teen feet long. The first thing is to fix upon a suitable ' lee,' 

 the meaning of which has already been explained. Then one 

 of the mooring-poles is thrust into the mud, and one end of the 

 boat tied to it. The boat is then brought parallel with the 

 bank, and the other mooring-pole is fixed and the boat at- 

 tached. It thus lies parallel with the stream, and from ten to 

 thirty feet from the bank, according to the depth of the water. 

 Care must be taken not to get in the fairway of the wherries. 

 This precaution is so frequently neglected, and fishermen are 

 becoming so numerous that they form a serious obstruction to 

 the navigation. Now and then a boat is run into, and it is only 

 by good luck that no fatal accident has yet happened. The 

 wherries are sailing barges of thirty to seventy tons burthen. 



