72 BRITISH FRESH- WATER FISHES 



the same time of year as the perch, the yellow eggs being 

 woven in festoons after the manner in vogue with that fish. 

 In short, the ruffe may be described as to character and habit 

 as an unwarlike, mild-mannered perch. Izaak Walton vouches 

 for its excellence on the table, declaring that " no fish that 

 swims is of a pleasanter taste." The greater the pity, then, 

 that there is so little flesh in the diminutive carcase. 



My own experience of the pope as a sporting fish is of 

 limited extent and of very ancient date. It used to be plentiful 

 Angling ^" ^^ muddy waters of the canal at Leamington, near 

 for Pope, j^y q\^ school, and gave us diversion on Saturday 

 afternoons in far-off summers. Fine tackle, a light float, and 

 a red worm on a small hook are pretty sure to produce samples 

 of the ruffe in such waters as it inhabits. But in no part of 

 Britain is the ruffe found in such numbers as in the Norfolk 

 Broads, where anglers are often disgusted and driven to 

 another beat by the persistent biting at the bait by shoals 

 of these little fish, the " poor relations " of the perch, which 

 is the coveted quarry. 



The fatal consequences of inheriting a bad name are 

 proverbial. It proved to be a cruel destiny that conferred 

 the title of " pope " upon an inoffensive creature in Protestant 

 England, for it has exposed it to persecution of a peculiarly 

 barbarous and senseless kind, which, unless the influence of 

 school boards has prevailed to suppress it, continues at the 

 present time. Frank Buckland described how the people of 

 Sheffield and other large towns used to go in hundreds to a 

 place well-named Crewell Bridge, in Lincolnshire, where these 

 fish abound. Every pope caught had a cork impaled on its 

 dorsal spine, and was set at liberty, until the surface of the 

 canal for miles was covered with bobbing corks. Of course 

 all these luckless fish were doomed to a lingering death. 



