64 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



of the Norfolk and Suffolk Freshwater Fisheries 

 Act in 1877 this waste has happily been put a 

 stop to, as these immense quantities of fish 

 were caught by poachers dragging the rivers 

 with small-meshed nets. Most of the bream 

 caught in Norfolk are sent to towns such as 

 Manchester and Birmingham, where there are 

 large numbers of poor Jews, who buy the 

 bream at a low price for eating on fast-days. 

 It has been affirmed by Mr. Greville Fennell, 

 in the columns of the Field, that on Trent- 

 side bream are held in high estimation for the 

 table, and it is said that a bream weighing 

 17 lbs. was once taken in the Trent. The one 

 drawback to a bream's gastronomical merit is 

 that he is furnished with a double row of 

 ribs, which correspond to those of the 

 herring, shad, and pilchard. But in a fish 

 of so large a size, it seems absurd to allow 

 this fact to militate much against him, when 

 herrings, whose diminutive bodies often seem 

 to contain nothing but bones, are so highly 

 appreciated. In France, bream are much eaten, 

 ten or twelve sous a pound being the usual 



