176 FISHING GOSSIP. 



bottom-feeders, that a wels must have but rarely a 

 chance of catching them. Under favourable circum- 

 stances the wels grows quickly in the earlier part of 

 its life, attaining a weight of 1 Ib. in the first year, 

 and 3 Ibs. in the second ; it is very probably a long- 

 lived fish, growing, like many others, during the whole 

 of its existence. Different opinions exist as to the 

 flavour of its flesh. That of young individuals is 

 certainly not inferior to the flesh of the pike ; and 

 that of old ones appeared to me to taste exactly like 

 the flesh of a sturgeon. In districts where it is 

 found in some quantity, the air-bladder is preserved 

 and used as isinglass. 



At one of the first meetings of the Acclimatisation 

 Society of Great Britain, to which I had been invited 

 in order to give my opinion as to the feasibility of the 

 introduction of the pike-perch (Luciopercci), I opposed 

 the plan, for reasons which I then detailed, and directed 

 the attention of the meeting to the wels, stating that 

 it was the only species w^hich could be recommended 

 for acclimatisation at present. The acclimatisation of 

 tropical fish, no matter whether from lowland waters 

 or from mountain-streams, is a thing as impossible as 

 that of palm-trees ; yet it has been proposed, talked 

 of, and even written about. In a climate like that of 

 Great Britain, only those species can thrive which are 

 taken from a temperate zone ; therefore, the idea of 

 transporting a valuable species from the temperate 



