28 ANGLING. 



They are said to have been first discovered by Dr. Caius, 

 the founder of Caius College. 



THE BLEAK (Cyprinus albumus). 



This lively silvery little fish is the exemplification in 

 fish life of perpetual motion , for he is never still, darting 

 hither and thither, snatching at any floating trifle that 

 seems to promise food ; his activity is incessant. Throw 

 on the water a bit of bread, and, before it has floated 

 fifty yards, if there be bleak about, it will be surrounded 

 by a perfect shoal of them, all struggling and jostling 

 to get a crumb of the desired morsel. The embouchure 

 of a drain is a favourite hunting-ground for them ; there 

 they may be seen in shoals, darting through the filth and 

 capturing the atoms that pass down. They will take 

 worm, gentle, or fly freely, either on the bottom, in mid- 

 water, or on the surface, and the best way to catch them, 

 perhaps, is by whipping with a single gentle. They are 

 by no means bad eating, cooked like sprats, and formerly 

 the nacre was collected from their scales, and fetched a 

 good price for silvering various objects, particularly 

 artificial pearls. It has been often a matter of question 

 what becomes of the bleak in the winter, as they are 

 hardly ever met with then. 



THE ROACH (Cyprinus rutilus). 



The roach was years ago, when roach fishers were 

 nothing like as numerous as they are now, called " the river 

 sheep," because he was so unsuspicious and so easily 

 caught ; but now he by no means deserves so simple a 

 character; where he is seldom fished for, he may be 

 correspondingly incautious, but a big roach in a fairly 



