512 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN THE GENTLE CRAFT. 



BREAM FISHING. 



The fish under notice is tolerably well known to anglers, 

 and yet merits a passing word or two in the matter of 

 description. He grows to a large size, and as he increases 

 in weight becomes a very handsome fellow, requiring no 

 little skill on the part of a fisher to successfully make a 

 large bag. With a high arched back, and deep belly, he is 

 somewhat of a rhomboidal form, his sides being, unless very 

 well nourished, extremely flat in comparison with his great 

 depth. His head is small, with the nose pointed and 

 tapering down to the mouth, which is void of teeth, and 

 not by any means a large one. The eyes are large and 

 full, the irides of a silvery hue, the fins, the dorsal in 

 particular, are small sized, the anal extending from the vent 

 to the root of the tail, which is large, powerful and deeply 

 forked. In colour, bream vary considerably; and there 

 seems to be two distinct classes of the same species, 

 although both inhabit similar localities. The one cabled 

 the golden, or carp bream, attains a far larger size than his 

 relative, the white bream, the latter never carrying the 

 brilliant bronze tint of his big brother. The golden bream 

 has his back coloured with a deep olive bronze tint, the 

 sides gradually growing lighter in hue as they approach 

 the belly, which is a shining silvery white, the fins of a 

 dusky grey, tinged at the root with the predominant golden 

 cast; the scales in both species are large, round and well 

 developed. Bream are thoroughly gregarious in their 

 habits, herding together in large shoals, and generally 

 seeking the deepest and widest part of a river, where the 

 stream is slow and heavy, and the sides are fringed with 

 beds of reed and rushes. Such situations are always 



