THE PERCH. 313 
few shot, sufficient to sink the bait to within three 
inches of the bottom. When a bite is felt, a little time 
should be given before striking: when struck, the perch 
is surely taken, for though he pulls hard for a short time 
he has neither the fierce courage nor the wily craft of 
the trout, but succumbs after a few brief struggles. A 
reel is necessary, and the float often dispensed with by 
veterans in the art. 
The following very graphic extracts, on perch fishing 
in the waters of the Niagara river and Lake Erie, are 
from the pen of probably the best piscatorial writer of 
the United States, long an esteemed correspondent of the 
Buffalo’ Commercial Advertiser, from whose lucubrations 
Ihave borrowed largely in my larger works on “ Fish 
and Fishing,” and to whom I gladly record my obliga- 
tion: 
“ The Yellow Perch. This beautiful and active fish 
is almost omnipresent in the fresh waters of the North- 
ern States. There are probably two distinct but similar 
species in our country, blended together under this com- 
mon name. The perch of New England differs from 
ours principally in the shape of the head. In the Sara- 
toga Lake, Owasco Lake, Cayuga Outlet, the Flats of 
Lake Huron, and many other localities, the perch is 
larger than with us, frequently weighing three pounds. 
Among the perch of our streams and rivers, a half-pound- 
er is a very portly citizen—though on a few particular 
bars they are sometimes taken in considerable numbers, 
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