276 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



our best waters I question whether a bream of 10 lbs. has 

 ever been taken, but certainly some have approximated 

 to this weight. I have heard that 12 lb. fish have been 

 taken in Loch Erne, and there is a legend that one of 

 17 lbs. was once taken in the Trent. I have seen a 71b. 

 fish from the Thames at Datchet ; but this is not by any 

 means an extraordinary weight in some of the Bedfordshire 

 waters. In the private water at Blackheath, which I 

 mentioned in my Note on carp, I have caught many 

 scaling between 4 lbs. and 6 lbs.; but, on the whole, 

 an angler may be satisfied if he catches fish over 

 3 lbs., even in good water. An angler will always 

 remember the day he has the good fortune to take a brace 

 of four-pounders. Bream, like carp, are wonderfully 

 tenacious of life, and I have read that they will bear 

 transporting to a great distance, providing they are 

 carefully packed in straw, with a morsel of bread steeped 

 in alcohol placed in their mouths. 



Bream are well distributed over Central Europe, but 

 they are by no means so common in the British Isles as 

 carp and tench. They frequent deep, still waters, where 

 weeds and mud abound, but I think they prefer a slight 

 stream to absolutely stagnant water. Bedfordshire is 

 famous for them, the deep, sluggish streams of that county 

 being exactly to their taste. The Ouse is decidedly the 

 best bream river in England. The Norfolk Broads have 

 of old been one of their most favourite localities. The 

 Pulborough and Amberley waters, so largely resorted to 

 by London anglers, contain many and good fish of this 

 genus. The reservoirs, such as that at the "Welsh 

 Harp," are fairly supplied with them. The Lea produces 

 fine specimens, but not in large quantities; while the 



