490 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN THE GENTLE CRAFT. 



perch, and to this day I recollect my pride and exultation 

 when I effected his capture. He had located himself near 

 the sluice-gates at the head of a mill-stream, hard by my 

 native vale of Derwent, and day after day I caught sight 

 of him and looked wistfully and longingly, trying him with 

 wasp grubs and brandlings alas ! in vain. One day I met 

 a man chubbing, using shrimps for bait, and watched him 

 roving without float or shot under the high banks of the 

 stream, letting the current carry his bait where it would. 

 Thinks I, " Shrimps will catch that perch," and so they 

 did, for going to tea an evening or two afterwards I found 

 the clergyman's superior moiety was expected, and amongst 

 other delicacies shrimps were on the festive board. I 

 " went for " that plate, and quick as thought a handful was 

 transferred from it, and during the whole of that warm 

 evening lovingly reposed in my trousers pocket, amongst, I 

 doubt not, alley-taws, peg-tops, bits of string, a broken- 

 bladed knife, a jew's-harp and a paper of eel hooks. Break of 

 day found me on the sluice-gates, and ten minutes after- 

 wards that perch was on the bank among the dewy grass. 

 What man is bold enough to say that my boy's heart 

 exulted not, and that my blood coursed not rapidly in my 

 veins, even as the deer stalker's who sees the Monarch of the 

 Glen totter and fall to the crack of his trusty grooved barrel ? 

 Pennant, an excellent authority, thus describes the fish 

 under notice : " The body is deep, the scales very rough, 

 the back much arched, and the side line approaches near to 

 it ; the irides are golden, the teeth small, disposed in the 

 jaws and on the roof of the mouth, which is large; the 

 edges of the covers of the gills are serrated, and on the 

 lowest end of the largest is a sharp spine." So far as colour 

 is concerned, our friend is perhaps as brilliant an inhabitant 

 of our lakes and rivers as we have, his back being a rich 



