THE BREAM 133 



THE BEEAM 



is a great, flat, coarse, ugly fish, strong in the water, 

 but utterly detestable on the table. The French, it is 

 true, are of a somewhat different opinion, and hold him 

 in some degree of estimation. 



This fish frequents still places in deep, placid waters ; 

 but prefers the retirement of ponds and lakes, where the 

 water is still, the locality undisturbed, and the bottom 

 weedy and muddy. 



The bream is to be found in most of the slow, still 

 rivers of England, and sometimes attains a very large 

 size; he is then very much like a pair of bellows in 

 shape, and much the same in flavour. In the north of 

 Europe this fish has been known to reach the weight 

 of twenty pounds; and in 1749 there were taken at 

 a single draught, out of a large lake in Sweden, five 

 thousand bream, the aggregate weight of which was 

 eighteen thousand pounds. We have ourselves caught 

 them four or five pounds in weight, and have heard of 

 other people catching them still larger ; but this size is 

 by no means general. 



The bream spawn late in June or early in July, and 

 at that season seek out the level shelving sides, or the 

 muddy bottoms of rivers well stocked with weeds. Each 

 female is accompanied with three or four males. They 

 multiply very rapidly; and, indeed, 137,000 eggs have 

 been counted in the ovarium of a single female. During 

 the season, it is said, the males are covered with 

 tubercles like the smallpox. " At this season," says a 

 French writer, " they make a great noise as they swim 

 in numerous flocks ; and yet they distinguish the sound 

 of bells, or the tambour, or any other analogous tones, 

 which sometimes frighten them, retard their movements, 

 or drive them into the nets of the fisherman." Surely 

 all this must be purely fanciful ! Our author gives no 

 authority for the statements, neither does he say that 

 he ever heard these sounds in his life. 



The bream grows very fast, and is remarkably 

 tenacious of life when taken out of the water during 



