306 "notes on fish and fishing. 



very graceful appearance, while its silvery whiteness is 

 its most distinguishing as well as most beautiful feature. 

 The dace is perhaps the most elegant of our fresh-water 

 fish. 



Ichthyologically there is little or nothing of interest to 

 be said of dace. They are found in suitable waters in 

 almost any part of Europe, but no notice seems to have 

 been taken of them by ancient authors either in this 

 country or elsewhere. With us dace are found in almost 

 all clear, rapid streams, whether deep or shallow, and are 

 often a great nuisance in trout streams, where they not 

 only devour a large proportion of the food trout feed on, 

 but annoy fly -fishermen by attaching themselves to his fly 

 when he is intent on nobler game. There are large quan- 

 tities in many of the Welsh trout streams, as also in 

 those of the south of England. The Thames is fairly 

 well stocked with them, and, though as a rule they much 

 prefer clear water, they are found in considerable num- 

 bers in the dirty tidal water below Teddington, and are 

 caught even as low down as Hammersmith Bridge. Dace 

 anglers, confining themselves specially, or at least as far 

 as possible to this fish, will often capture as many as from 

 four to eight dozen in a day. I have often wondered at 

 dace frequenting this part of the river ; but at the same 

 time I know that they will live in a streamless pond, for I 

 had many in such a pond a few years ago, the only change 

 of water they got being the influx from rain, which ran 

 off through a waste-pipe when the pond came to a certain 

 height. 



Dace seldom exceed 1 lb. in weight, indeed this may 

 be considered their top weight ; and in few rivers in 

 England do they exceed half a pound. Bloch, however, 



