54 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



found in such trifling becks and rivulets as serve to shelter 

 a true riverine fish Hke the trout. In fact, if you want to 

 define the true home of any animal, find out where that animal 

 is reared. The true home of the eel is in the sea, for it is 

 in the sea that the young eels are hatched ; that of the salmon 

 is running fresh water, for there alone can it reproduce its 

 species. The true home, therefore, of the perch being still 

 water, it is only in a wide expanse of the same that you can 

 observe the natural habits of that fish. In no river, probably, 

 could the performance be equalled which is recorded by the 

 Rev. Richard Lubbock, namely, the capture of eighteen perch, 

 in one of the Norfolk Broads, at a single fishing, and with- 

 out moving the punt, not one of which weighed less than 

 two pounds.* 



The perch can only spawn in still water, or in a very 



gentle current. The operation takes place in the spring 



Rcproduc' i^ionths, varying, according to latitude and tempera- 



tion. x.\xrQ., from March to the end of May. I have 

 never witnessed the process, but it has been described as being 

 effected by the female rubbing herself against stones, stakes, 

 or water-weeds. The eggs as they leave her body receive a 

 coating of mucus, and form a tangled skein, sometimes five 

 or six feet in length. The late Mr. Francis Francis, a well- 

 known writer upon angling, compared these eggs in appearance 

 to ropes of tiny seed pearls. 



Nature — that vague abstraction whereof the designing power 

 is manifest everywhere, and which we dimly personify in our 

 imagination — Nature, I say, adapts all her means to one supreme 

 end — reproduction. Provided this be secured, and thereby 

 the perpetuation of the species be maintained, she shows her- 

 self absolutely indifferent to the fortune or fate of individuals. 

 Life, which we have installed in our ethical system as a sacred 

 thing, not to be wantonly wasted, she casts about sometimes 



* Observations on the Fauna of Norfolk^ by the Rev. Richard Lubbock. 

 Norwich, 1845. 



