ON SMALLEE PONDS. 207 



be done for him but to treat bim fairly, and fish 

 with moderation. The best pike I ever saw, if I 

 except the Till fish already mentioned, are, without 

 question, the Trent pike, both for shape and make, 

 and for the table. They are short, thick, well-fed, 

 handsome fish, with firm white flesh, and every other 

 good quality which can belong to a pike. In ponds 

 pike are less liable to contract the muddy flavour 

 than the other flsh : how this is I know not. I have 

 tasted carp from a pond of very muddy flavour, and 

 jack from the same pond almost destitute of it; so 

 that is a point in his favour. A jack, of from one 

 to three or four pounds' weight, may be made very 

 fair eating, as I have before stated. To the sports- 

 man he is welcome, as coming at a time when salmon 

 and trout are out of season, and altogether the pike 

 is not a bad fish in Ms ]place: out of it he is a 

 perfect pest. 



Of Bream, there are two kinds, the white and the 

 carp bream. The white bream is comparatively 

 worthless, both for the table and the sportsman, as 

 it is of small size and bad flavour. The carp bream 

 grows at times to a very large size in the Irish 

 lakes, where a bream fisherman would be satiated 

 with the sport, as cartloads are often caught at one 



