NATURAL HISTORY. 
79 
are offered for sale. They are either fried in cakes, 
or stewed, and are accounted very delicious. 
Some of the gigantic tenants of the great deep, 
occasionally wander into the Severn. November 1st, 
1819, a pike-headed whale, Balcenoptera boops, was 
left by the receding of the tide within ten miles 
of Gloucester. It was sixty feet in length. In the 
summer of 1813, a large sturgeon, Acclpenser sturio, 
was caught in the Severn at Worcester, on the side 
of Pitchcroft.^ Daniel, in his Rural Sports" states, 
that In the Severn, near Worcester, a man bathing, 
was struck, and actually received his death wound 
from a sword fish, Xiphias gladius. The fish was 
caught immediately afterwards, so that the fact was 
ascertained beyond a doubt." These monsters are 
found of the length of fifteen feet, and the snout, or 
sword, two or three feet more. 
The more common fresh-water fish of the Severn 
are the roach, Leuciscus rutilus, the dace, L. vulgaris^ 
the chub, L. cephalus, the bleak, L. alburnus, the carp, 
Cyprinus carpio, the trout, Salmo farlo, the perch, 
Perca fluviatilis, and the flounder, Platessa fiesus. 
The pike, Esox lucius, sometimes occurs in our pools 
of very considerable size. 
The Teme contains excellent grayling, Coregonus 
^ Several sturgeons are recorded in the annals of Tewkesbury as having been 
taken in the Severn at that place ; and in 1829 a large specimen was caught 
there and landed in the Bushley meadowSj in this county ; the lord of the manor, 
J. E. Dowdeswell, Esq. having waived his right to it, the fishermen cleared upwards 
of ten pounds by exhibiting it, and disposing of the flesh, &c. in small portions to 
the curious. This sturgeon was seven feet in length, two feet ten inches in girth, 
and weighed one hundred and twenty pounds. 
