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FORTHE PEOPLE

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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM

OF

NATURAL HISTORY

THE SPORTING FISH OF GREAT
BRITAIN

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THE

SPORTING FISH OF
GREAT BRITAIN

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NOTES ON ICHTHYOLOGY ^

NOTES ON ICHTHYOLOGY

BY

I^CHOLMONDE LEY-PEN NELL

LATE HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTOR OF SEA FISHERIES

AUTHOR OF

" Saititott and Trojit," " Pfke unci other Coarse Fish'^ *' The Modt'vn

Practical Angler^* " The Angler-Natitralist^^ " The Book

of the Pike," &c. Editor of the late ^' Fishcr-

jnau's Magazine and Pericw.'*

ILLUSTRATED BY SIXTEEN LITHOGRAPHS OF

FISH IN GOLD, SILVER, AND

COLOURS.

LONDON

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON

Crown Buii-DInos, i88, Fleet Street

1886

{All rights reserved)

1,11 I ■■ 1 1 I , I

CIIISWICK press:— C. WHITTINGHAM and CO., TOOKS COl'RT,
CHANCERY LANE.

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PREFATORY NOTE.

jHIS attempt to represent the principal
fresh-water fish of the British Islands,
at least approximately in their actual
forms and colours, may not, perhaps, be
unwelcome to lovers of Natural History.

The Chapter on the Outlines of Ichthyology
will, I hope, be useful to Anglers and students.

To the author of Yarrell's " British Fishes," as
also to Mr. J. Van Voorst, the publisher of that
excellent and exhaustive treatise, I gladly take
this opportunity of acknowledging my many
obligations.

H. C.-P.

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CONTENTS.

HE Sat.mon

The Bull Trout

The Sea Trout (or Salmon-Trout) .
The Common Trout

The Great Lake Trout
The Grayling ....
The Pike

The Perch

The Carp

The Tench

The Barbel

The Bream

The Roach

The Dace and the Chul;

The Bleak

Outlines of Ichthvolooy 147

I
32

37
47
58
62
69
86

94

108
116

12 2

128
138
14+

.,85

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS OF FISH.

FACE

HE Salmon i

The Bull Trout 32

The Sea Trout 37

The Common Trout 47

The Loch Leven Trout 52

The Great Lake Trout 5S

The Grayling 62

The Pike 6(>

The Perch 86

The Carp 94

The Tench .... 108

The Barbel 116

The Bream 122

The Roach 12S

The Rudd 132

The Dace 13S

The Chub 140

The Bleak 144

THE SALMON.'

^NTIL within the last fifty years very
httle was known of the natural history
of the Salmon, the united lore of those
most interested in the fisheries amount-
ing to little beyond the fact that the fish ascended
the rivers to spawn during the spring and summer
— spawned — and descended again to the sea within
the followino- two or three months.

Since the period referred to, however, and espe-
cially during the last two or three decades, the
researches of ichthyologists and the experiments
which have been conducted on a large scale by
enterprising and scientific men have thrown a
flood of light upon the subject, converting doubts
into certainties, theories into practice, and gene-
rally advancing our knowledge of the subject to a
point which has already produced practical results
of great importance in the re-stocking of our ex-

' Salino sa/iir. Salwo, Lat. for a salmon ; sa/nr, (tqm the
Latin sa/arins. of salt.

K

2 THE SPORTING FISH

hausted salmon rivers, and the increase of a
valuable article of the national food-supply.

I may perhaps be permitted to refer with some
satisfaction to my own small share in bringing
about the legislative reforms to which the present
material prosperity of our fisheries is of course
primarily attributable. It is now some years, since,
in an article on this subject in the Saturday Revieiv,
it was stated, " Mr. Pennell, Mr. Buckland, and a
few others, have worked hard in the cause of the
Salmon, in spite of territorial apathy, and if we are
ever again to have this fish as plentiful as it was
in the days of the mythical apprentices, it will be
mainly owing to their exertions."

The following sketch, which I originally pub-
lished in the Times, gives in a summarised form the
history of the Salmon as it was then known. It
cannot, I think, be said that subsequent experi-
ments and investigations have in any material
point added to or taken from it.

Proved Facts in the History of the Salmon.

1 . Salmon and Grilse invariably spawn in fresh
water if possible, — both the eggs, and the young
fry whilst in the Parr state, being destroyed by
contact with salt water.

2. The eggs are usually deposited on gravelly
shallows, wliere they hatch in from So to 140 days.

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 3

according to the temperature of the water. Eggs
remaining unhatched beyond the latter period will
seldom hatch at all, possibly from having been
destroyed by the low temperature.

3. The eggs deposited by the female will not
hatch under any circumstances unless vivified,
after exclusion, by the milt of the male ; and — at
least up to the period of migration — there is no
difference whatever in fry bred between Salmon
only, between Grilse onl)', between Salmon and
Grilse, between Salmon and Parr, or between
Grilse and Parr. ' The female Parr cannot spawn ;
but the male Parr possesses, and constantly exer-
cises, the power of vivifying Salmon and Grilse
eggs.

\_Note '. — This is to be understood as referring to the specific
characteristics of any of the Sahiion thus bred. It seems
very probable that there may be in fry variations of size or
development depending on their parentage or generation,
as there are also known to be differences in the size of the
eggs of different breeding fish dependent upon the size and
age of the latter.]

4. The fry remain one, two, and, in some cases,
three years in the rivers as Parr before going down
to the sea, — about half taking their departure at
one year, nearly all the others at two years, and
the remainder (which are exceptional) at three
years old.

5. All young Salmon-fry are marked with bluish

4 THE SPORTING FISH

bars on their sides until shortly before their migra-
tion, up to which period they are Parrs ; they then
invariably assume a more or less complete coating
of silvery scales and become Smolts, — the bars, or
Parr-marks, however, being still clearly discernible
on rubbing off the new scales.

6. The young of all the species here included in
the genus Sahuo have at some period of their ex-
istence these bluish bars ; and consequently such
marks are not by themselves proofs that fry bearing
them are the young of the true Salmon {Salmo
salar).

7. Unless the young fish put on their Smolt
dress in May or early in June, and thereupon go
down to the sea, they remain as Parrs another
year; and without Smolt scales they will not
migrate, and cannot exist in salt water.

&

8. The length of the Parr at six weeks old is
about an inch and a half or two inches; and the
weight of the Smolt before reaching the tidal wave
from one to two ounces.

9. In at least many cases, Smolts thus migrating
to the sea in May and June return as Grilse, some-
times within five, generally within ten weeks, the
increase in weight during that period varying from
2 to 10 lbs., the average being from 4 to 6 lbs. ;

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 5

and these Grilse spawn about November or De-
cember— go back to the sea — and (in many-
cases) re-ascend the rivers the next spring as
Salmon, with a further increase of 4 to 12 lbs.
Thus, a fish hatched in April, 1854, and marked
when migrating in May, 1855, was caught as a
Salmon of 22 lbs. weight in March, 1856.

10. It appears certain, however, that Smolts do
not always return during the same year as Grilse,
but frequently remain nine or ten months in the
sea, returning in the following spring as small-sized
Salmon.

\_NoU. — It will thus be seen that the fry of the Salmon are
called Pans, or Parr, until they put on their migratory
dress, when they become Sino/ts and go down to the salt
water; Grilse if they return during the first year of their
migration ; and at all other periods Sctlmon.^

11. It has also been clearly proved that, in ge-
neral, Salmon and Grilse find their way back to
spawn to the rivers in which they were bred — some-
times to the Identical spots, — spawn about Novem-
ber or December, — and go down again to the sea
as "spent fish," or " Kelts," in February or March,
— returning, in at least many cases, during the
following four or five months as " clean fish," and
with an increase in weight of 7 to 10 lbs.'

' Shortly before spawning, and whilst returning to the sea as
Kelts, or spent fish, Salmon are unfit for food, and their capture

6 TBE SPORTING FISH

This, in a condensed form, is at the present time
— as it was when first pubHshed — a fair statement
of our positive knowledge as regards the leading
facts in the history of the Salmon ; and it may be
doubted if any subsequent discoveries — however
they may add to or amplify — will be found to mate-
rially modify them. In " Fact, No. lo" will be found
the first statement of the now very generally ad-
mitted theory of a double or divided migration.

The several species belonging to the genus
Salmo, and properly coming within the scope of
these pages as British Sporting Fish, may be
broadly divided into three groups : —

1. The Silver, or Migratory species {i.e. those
migrating to or from the sea) ;

2. The Yellow, or Non-migratory species ; and,

3. The Charrs, or Orange- and Red-coloured
species ;

the general colouring of the first being always
more or less greyish-silver, that of the second
golden or yellow, and that of the third, espe-

is then illegal. " Foul fish " before spawning are, if males,
termed Red fish, from the orange-coloured stripes with which
their cheeks are marked, and the golden-orange tint of the
body ; the females are darker in colour, and are called Black
fish. After spawning the males are called Kippers, and the
females Shedders or Baggits.

OF GREAT BRITAIN: 7

daily on the under part of the body, crimson
and orange of various degrees of brilliancy. The
species of the Silver, or Migratory group, are
three in number ; which include, according to the
opinions of ichthyologists, the whole of our migra-
tory Salmonidcc, under whatever local names they
may occur :

The true Salmon (Parr, Smolt, Grilse) Salmo

salar ;

The Bull-Trout, also called Grey Trout,
Sewin, and Roimdtail — Salmo criox ; and

The Sea-Trout or Salmon-Trout (sometimes
also called White Trout) — Salmo trutta.

In the few further observations which limits of
space permit of my offering on the general history
of the true Salmon [Salmo salar), I shall adopt the
sequence suggested by its natural habits, as likely
to be that most easily followed and most conve-
nient for reference. Thus, commencing with the
ascent of the fish in the early spring and summer,
its course will be briefly sketched from the tidal
wave up the river to the spawning-ground, and
back again to the sea, — the gradual changes ot
colour and condition being at the same time
pointed out. Returning then to the spawning-
beds, where the ova should be approaching the

8 THE SPORTING FISH

time of hatching, the growth and habits of the
young fry will be traced from the ^g'g until their
mieration to the salt water as Smolts ; their sub-
sequent return as Grilse ; and, finally, as Salmon.

Ascent of Salmon from the sea : fresh-run

FISH.

Sooner or later during the spring and summer
months a proportion at least of the Salmon in the
bays and estuaries of the coast make their way up
the rivers for the purpose of spawning — their ge-
neral colouring at this period being a brilliant sil-
very white, merging into a bluish black with a few
dark spots on the upper part of the body and head.
When first ascending from the sea, Salmon are
termed " fresh-run" fish, and are then in the most
perfect condition both for the rod and the table.

The marks by which a fresh-run fish may be
known are, the bright, silvery hue of the belly and
sides, and the comparatively loose adherence of
the scales — this more ^particularly in the Grilse.
In the case also of Salmon just fresh from the sea,
a species of parasite, called " tide-lice," may be fre-
quently found attached to the fish. These, how-
ever, are killed by a few hours' contact with fresh
water.

In some rivers the ascent and spawning-time of
the Salmon are much earlier than in others. This

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 9

is often the case in rivers issuing from large lakes,
in which the water has previously undergone a sort
of filtering process and has become warmer, owing
to the greater mass and higher temperature of its
source ; whilst, on the other hand, streams which
are liable to be swollen by the melting of snows,
or cold rains, or which are otherwise bleak and ex-
posed, are later in season, and yield their principal
supply when the great lake rivers are beginning to
fail.

The order in which fish ascend rivers is — allow-
ing for the variations already pointed out — gene-
rally somewhat as follows : —

First come the strong, early runners. These are
succeeded by the Grilse, and by the small " Spring
Salmon " which have probably never ascended at
all as Grilse, but have remained in the sea since
the Smolt state — a period of from eight to ten
months, as noticed in " Proved Facts," No. 10.
The scales of these spring Salmon are not easily
rubbed off like those of the Grilse, and their tails
are not so forked. A few of them generally appear
with the early-running fish. As the season ad-
vances, the larger fish and those heavy with spawn
begin to work their way upwards from the mouths
of the rivers and estuaries towards the hicrher
reaches ; and such fish continue ascending from the
sea until the close of the autumn, or, if the river be
an early one, of the summer.

Even as late as November and December, and

lo THE SPORTING FISH

the January and February following, a few fish
continue to run which have been usually considered
as " barren " — without capability of spawning ; but
this notion was proved b)' the late Mr. Ffennell ^ to
be erroneous, as upon dissection he found that the
females had ova in them perfectly developed,
although not larger than mustard-seed, whilst in
the males a thin thread of milt was always dis-
cernible. These fish, of which many ascend the
Tay in November and the three following months,
remain nearly a year in the fresh waters before
spawning, and although their colours gradually be-
come darker in consequence, they are to all intents
and purposes "clean fish " — a term used to express
the antithesis to " foul fish " — and are exceedingly
good eatincr.

The appearance of these so-called barren Sal-
mon at a time when most fish are spawning, or are
just recovering from the process, illustrates what I
believe to be the most important fact connected
with the history of the Salmon, and one which —
until the publication of " Proved Facts," and my
subsequent notes in the "Angler-Naturalist" in
1863 — does not appear to have been at all under-
stood, although following as a natural corollary to
the propositions of Mr. Ffennell, and hinted at by
Mr. Brown in his account of the Stormontfield
experiments', — viz., that the principle of a divided

' See Appendix to Report of Commission of House of
Lords on the Salmon Fisheries.

OF GREAT BRITAIN. ii

misiration is not confined to the Parrs on cromcr to
the sea, or to the Smolts on their return from it,
some as Grilse and some as spring Salmon, but
that it also extends to the old and adult fish after
spawning — one portion of these latter coming back
into the rivers during the following summer, and
the rest not until the spring succeeding it ; in other
words (and this is the gist of the whole), that at
least a proportion of Salmon spaivn only on every
alternate year.

An analogous fact was observed by Dr. Davy
with regard to the spawning of the common Trout.
Dr. Davy was in the habit of opening the fish he
caught, and by this means he discovered that, as
the spawning-season approached, only about one
half of the females had visible eggs, whilst in the
other half there were no signs of the development of
the ova. Charr, also, are frequently taken in Win-
dermere in hicrh condition in October and Novem-
ber, which is their regular spawning-season, — a
fact which would seem to point to the possibility
of the rule of alternate spawning-years holding
good in the case of all fish here included under the
genus Salmo.

The design of this law or instinct — which, when
once apprehended, will be found to explain many
of the perplexities in the history of the Salmon —
is intelligible enough, viz., to ensure as large a
supply of clean fish throughout as large^ a portion
of the year as possible, and to enable each river to

12 THE SPORTING FISH

support the greatest stock, — a result which could
only be obtained by such a provision as the above.
It is also doubtless intended to ensure an equal dis-
tribution of the fish throughout the whole length of
the river. These Salmon, by ascending thus early,
before their spawn is at all matured, are vigorous,
and able to overcome the obstacles in their up-
ward course to the extreme sources of the river —
to which those fish which remain in the sea until
heavy with spawn could never penetrate. But to
return.

During the early part of the season, the Salmon
in the rivers, which do not at once ascend, remain
in or near the mouths, most commonly advancing
with the flood, and retiring with the ebb of the
tide — unless captured by any of the contrivances
hereafter mentioned ; but as the season pro-
gresses they get gradually further into the fresh
water beyond the influence of the sea, and at
about this time will be found to be becominof
full of roe, and more or less out of condition
and unfit for food, according to their forward
state as breeding-fish. In fact, the edible qualities
of the Salmon when ascending rivers depend en-
tirely upon the state of the development of the
milt or roe. Even in the salt water this loss of
condition follows upon the maturing of the spawn ;
and when fish are precluded from entering rivers
by want of a rise in the tide, or other cause, the
development takes place as in the stream, and the

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 13

Salmon assume the recldisli-coloured tints distinc-
tive of spawning-fish.

With the approach of the spawning-time, the
anxiety of the Salmon to ascend increases. They
shoot up rapids with the velocity of arrows, and
make wonderful efforts to surmount cascades and
other impediments, frequently clearing a height of
two or three yards at a bound. It has been calcu-
lated— though I do not vouch for the accuracy of
the calculation — that, when swimming, or rather
darting at full speed, the Salmon will glide through
the water at the rate of about 1,500 feet per
minute, or 2,160,000 feet (upwards of 400 miles)
per day — a pace which, if it could be maintained,
would speedily carry' the fish round the world.
Marvellous stories are related of Salmon-jumps,
some altogether incredible, others, to say the least
of it, highly improbable. No doubt the depth of the
water from which they take their spring materially
influences its height ; but, as a general rule, the
limit of the perpendicular leap certainly does not
exceed 12 or 14 feet; or, if they rise higher than
that, the effort is aimless, and they are dashed down
again by the current before they have recovered
their energy. Frequently they are killed by the
exhaustive violence of their exertions, and some-
times they alight upon the rocks and are captured.

With the advance of the season the fish begin to
gain the upper and shallower reaches, or spawning-
grounds ; and at this time all the Salmon and

14 THE SPORTING FISH

Trout species resident in fresh water, both migra-
tory and non-migratory, acquire, in lieu of their
brilliant spring tints, a dusky-yellowish exterior,
accompanied by a considerable increase of mucus
or slime, — the fins also becoming more muscular.
As the important operation approaches, these
colours undergo a still further deterioration, the
general hue of the body in the males assuming a
browner or more golden tinge, and the cheeks
being marked with orange-coloured stripes ; the
lower jaw elongates, and a gristly projection or
horn turns upwards from the point, which is used
by the Salmon as an organ of offence in its con-
tests with other fish. In this state the males are
called " Red fish," or are said to be " on the reds."
The females are somewhat darker in colour, and
are known by the name of " Black fish."

The Spawning-beds.

The usual time for spawning is from November
until the latter end of January or the beginning of
February ; but there are e.vceptional rivers both
earlier and later, as already pointed out ; and it is
probable that many of the so-called " barren fish,"
entering the fresh water in November and Decem-
ber, spawn in the succeeding October.

The process of spawning is as follows : — A pair
of fish, male and female, select a gravelly shallow

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 15

suitable for the purpose, which is generally occu-
pied also by other spawners, both Salmon and
Trout, as well as by a considerable number of
male Parrs. These latter, as stated in " Proved
Facts," No. 3, are perfectly qualified to con-
tinue their species, and they perform a most
important part in the reproductive process ; for
the attentions of the male Salmon being con-
stantly distracted by the necessity of protecting
the spawning-bed from the intrusion of other fish,
the ova of the' female are during these absences
vivified by the milt of the Parrs.' The female
deposits her eggs in shallow furrows in the gravel,
to which they adhere by a thin coating of gluti-
nous matter, the male at the same time shedding
his milt over them. Whether these furrows are
made conjointly by both spawners, or by the female
fish only, and whether the snout or the tail is the
organ used in the delving process, have been dis-
puted points amongst naturalists. From the con-
current testimony, however, of those who have had
the best opportunities of observation, it now ap-
pears certain that the trenches are made by the
tail of the female fish only, and that the male takes

' According to the CNperiments of Mr. John Shaw (subse-
quently confirmed by those at Stormontfield), male Parrs attain
to the breeding-state in about eighteen months from the time
of hatching. The females, it would appear, never become pro-
lific whilst in the Parr state unless they are amongst the excep-
tional fish, alluded to in " Proved Facts," No. 4, which remain
over the third year in the rivers before migrating.

1 6 THE SrORTING FISH

no share whatever in the more laborious portions
of the parental duties.

The only extra-matrimonial function that he
performs consists in exerting an unwearied vigi-
lance to protect his seraglio from the invasions of
rival males, all of whom he assiduously endeavours
to expel, — living, in fact, in a perpetual state of
active hostilities. The female, regardless of the
frequent absences of her lord during these contests,
and probably satisfied with the presence of the
male Parrs, proceeds with her operations by throw-
ing herself, at intervals of a few minutes, upon her
side, and whilst in that position, by a rapid action
of the tail, she digs a receptacle for her eggs, a
portion of which she on each occasion deposits,
and, again turning on her side, covers it up by a
renewed action of the tail ; thus alternately dig-
ging, depositing, and covering ova until the whole
are laid, — a process usually occupying a period esti-
mated by different authorities at from three or four
to twelve days.

In the case of the male fish being captured or
killed, the female retires to the nearest large pool
in search of a fresh mate, with whom she returns
and completes the process of depositing her eggs.
This she will repeat several times if her partner be
removed ; and it is mentioned as a fact by Mr.
Young that nine male Salmon in succession have
been thus killed from the side of a sinole female,
who then brought back with her, as companion, a

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 17

large yellow Trout I In consequence, we may sup-
pose, of the arduous nature of his military duties
and reddish colour at this period, the term " old
soldier" is frequently used to designate the male
Salmon after spawning.

Return of Salmon to the sea as " spent
fish " after spawning.

After spawning, the adult fish are for some time
in a very weak and exhausted state, and have not
energy sufficient immediately to return to the sea.
They usually drop down from the spawning-
grounds, or " redds," to the first quiet deep, where
they remain until their strength is somewhat re-
cruited. They then continue falling back with the
winter and spring floods, descending from pool to
pool, and avoiding as much as possible weirs and
rapid currents, until they reach the sea, where they
quickly recover their condition, to ascend again
(at least in many cases) in the autumn or succeed-
ing spring for the same purpose as before, — always
remaining, however, for a considerable period in
the brackish water or tideway before making either
decided change.

After the conclusion of the spawning-process,
Salmon are called " spent " or unclean fish, or
" Kelts;" and at this time they are quite unfit for
food — -indeed almost poisonous — and their capture
is prohibited by law. Lately-spawned Kelts may

1 8 THE SPORTING FISH

be recognized by their dark unhealthy colour,
lanky, flaccid appearance, and by the enlargement
of the vent. Their gills also are almost invariably
found to be infested by a species of white worm
(the Lcrncea Sabnonis of Linnaeus), which adheres
firmly to the inside of the gill covers, and from
which they are released by contact with the salt
water, — a similar release from other parasites
being obtained on passing to the fresh water
from the sea.

Within a period of five or six months after their
return to the salt water, it has been proved that
at least a proportion of Kelts find their way back
to the upper reaches of the river as clean fish,
having gained in weight during that time from 7
to 10 lbs.

That spawned fish improve greatly in condition
before they leave the fresh water there is no room
to doubt, although they are never really fit for the
table until their return from their sea-trip. A fish
of this kind is known as a " well-mended Kelt,"
a term which is common amongst fishermen.

Hatching of the Eggs and Growth of the
YOUNG Fry.

Leavine now the exhausted and more or less ill-
conditioned Kelts to recruit themselves in their
salt-water bath, we return to the spawning-bed

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 19

where the eggs are approaching the time of
hatchinof.

Into this bed, during the preceding three months,
a dozen females have each poured the germs of,
say, from seventeen to twenty thousand Salmon,
which, if they all arrived at maturity, would repre-
sent in approximate figures some three million five
hundred thousand pounds' weight of wholesome
food, or a money- value of about _^ 160,000. Un-
fortunately, however, the fry in fact added to the
stock of the river are a mere fraction, and those
that survive to return as Grilse a very trifling frac-
tion of these numbers. The latter have been cal-
culated by Mr. Brown at about one in every 1,000,
and by Messrs. Ffennell and Ashworth at one in
every six thousand, of the original deposit of ova.

The causes of this destruction are numerous.
From the first laying of the &gg until the plunge of
the young Smolt into the tidal wave, and even after-
wards in the broader waters of the estuary or open
sea, a hundred wholesale depredators lie in wait
for it. First there are the shoals of hungry fish
of all kinds which prowl about the fords, pressing
close behind the spawner, and ready to fight for
the possession of her eggs almost before they are
laid ; then come the voracious larvas of the May-
fly and Stone-fly, and a host of kindred insects,
which work their way in amongst the gravel and
destroy, perhaps less ostentatiously, but not less
certainly.

io THE SPORTING FISH

If the ^^^ escapes these perils, and having per-
formed its protective mission releases its charge in
due course, fresh dangers await the delicate and
immature nursling. Again, the trout and the wild-
duck, and even the parent salmon themselves, hunt
it out in its sheltering creeks and crevices ; and
hundreds of fry are daily sacrificed on a single
spawning-bed by this means. Last of all comes
man, who wantonly, either for amusement or for
the sake of a single dish, fills his basket with pro-
duce which, if allowed to pass to the sea, would
have returned in a few weeks worth a pocketful of
gold. With these various enemies besetting every
period of their existence, it ceases to be a matter
of surprise that the percentage of fry attaining the
Grilse state should be as trifling as it is ; the only
wonder is that it is not still smaller.

Many causes of destruction, however, menace
the ova of the Salmon besides those enumerated :
a winter flood perhaps sweeps down the river, and
buries a whole brood under a foot of sand-drift ;
not only the duck and the grebe, but all sorts of
water-fowl and amphibia perform their share of
the work of depredation ; and though we know but
little of the habits of the Smolts when once in the
salt water, it may be conjectured that their adver-
saries here are not less active and numerous than
those of the river.

To revert to the spawning-beds.

In from 40 to 60 days after being first deposited

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 21

in the spawning-bed, the ^^<g begins to show faint
signs of animation, and the eye of the embryo fish
appears, a scarcely perceptible black speck, gra-
duall}^ increasing in size until the time of hatching
— an event which usually occurs in from 90 to 140
days, according to the temperature of the water
and forwardness of the spring.

The actual bursting of the young Salmon from
the ^'g'g is most interesting. The operation, which
I have frequently watched, takes place thus : — ■
The fish lies in the shell coiled round in the form
of a hoop, and the greatest strain being at the back,
this is, of course, the first part to be freed. At
this point the shell splits across, and, after a few
struggles, is completely thrown off with a jerk —
leaving the umbilical sac or " yolk-bag," containing
the red yolk of the ^g^, by which the fish is
nourished during the first five or six weeks of its
existence, suspended under the stomach. At this
" bag-stage " of its development, the half-formed
fry is exceedingly delicate, the displacement of a
stone, or the slightest bruise or injury, proving
instantly fatal. Its appearance is also very curious.
The future monarch of the stream is represented
by a mere ragged line, fringed at the edges and
almost transparent, the head and eyes being pro-
minent and altogether out of proportion to the
body, which measures only about five-eighths of
an inch in length, and is of a pale peach-blossom
or azure tint.

22 THE SPORTING FISH

In about thirty-five or forty days from the time
of hatching, the yolk-bag disappears, and the fry
becomes a perfect Httle fish of about an inch long,
with the fins separated and properly developed,
and the tail deeply forked at the end. The general
colour now also changes to a light brown ; and the
sides are indistinctly crossed by nine or ten trans-
verse dusky bars, or Parr-marks, characteristic of
all the species of the genus Sahno when in an im-
mature state, and which in the true Salmon remain
more or less visible even in a Smolt or Parr six
inches long. If the scales are removed, the marks
are much more obvious. The differences in ap-
pearance, in fact, between the fry of the Salmon,
Bull-Trout, and Sea-Trout, and probably also be-
tween the fry of the other species of the same
genus, are so trifling as to be scarcely perceptible
unless upon very close examination, and are, more-
over, liable to constant variations with local cir-
cumstances. According, however, to Sir William
Jardine, the fry of the common Trout {Salmo fario)
may always be distinguished from that of either
of the three migratory species by its having the
extremity of the second dorsal, or adipose, fin
fringed with orange.

Up to the period of their first assuming the
Parr-marks the Salmon-fry are unable to move
about much, owing to the presence of the vitelline,
or yolk-bag, which impedes their motions in swim-
ming, and obliges them when at rest to lie perpe-

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 23

tually on their backs, unless artificially supported.
This support they seek to obtain by placing them-
selves amongst gravel or in crevices between
stones, exhibiting generally a great desire to escape
observation — an instinct given to them no doubt
for their preservation during so feeble and helpless
a condition. On the disappearance, however, of
the yolk-bag they come from their hiding-places,
and are to be found, on careful search, in the
gentler eddies and small back-waters of the streams
in or near which the old Salmon had deposited
their spawn during the preceding winter.

At two months old the Parr begins to acquire a
more symmetrical form, and the disproportion in
the size of the head ceases to be observable ; at
four months the characteristic Parr-marks are
clearly defined, and at six months the fry has
reached the length of from three to four inches,
and is the small-sized Parr so constantly found in
salmon-rivers. Extraordinary variations, however,
are discovered in the trrowth-rate of fish of similar
aees and even beloncrlno- to the same brood — a fact
not hitherto entirely satisfactorily explained ; and,
within certain limits, the fish of different rivers
also vary in this manner not only in size, but often
in shape and colour, as much as do the qualities of
the streams themselves.

24 THE SPORTING FISH

Change of Parr into Smolts, and first
migration to the sea.

In somewhat more than twelve months from
the time of hatching — that is, between the middle
of April and the early part of June — about half of
the last year's Parr begin to assume the silver
coating of scales preparatory to making their first
trip to the sea as Siuolts. These silvery scales,
which form the distinctive mark of the Smolt as
distinguished from the Parr, are never put on ex-
cept when the fish is about to migrate ; and with-
out them it will not migrate at all, and cannot exist
in salt water, as has been proved by experiment.
The change commences by the tailj pectoral, and
back-fins acquiring a dusky margin, the whole
body of the fish at the same time exhibiting
symptoms of a silvery exterior, with increased
elegance of form.

When confined in ponds, the habits also of the
transforming fish undergo a marked alteration.
As Parr they show no disposition to congregate,
each occupying its own place, and any intruder
upon a post already tenanted being instantly and
forcibly expelled ; but as soon as the whole brood
have completed their travelling costume — an ope-
ration usually lasting two or three weeks — they
collect in a shoal, and show their desire to escape
by scouring over the ponds, leaping and sporting,
and generally displaying a greatly increased

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 25

amount of energy and activity. When their
passage to the sea has been barred too long,
Parrs in this state have been known to leap some
distance on to the shore or barrier, and thus kill
themselves.

It has been clearly demonstrated by the pro-
ceedings at Stormontfield that about one half the
young fry migrate when about a year old — almost
all the other half at their second year- — and the
few remaining at their third year ; but the period
of the descent is very generally the same in either
case, and in all rivers whether early or late, begin-
ning in March and continuing through April,
May, and the early part of June — only a few fish
continuing to migrate during the subsequent
months. The length of the Smolt when migrating
varies from 3^ to 7 or 8 inches, according to age
and other circumstances. Its full colours are,
dark blue or bluish green on the upper half of the
body and head, with black or carmine-coloured
spots ; gill-covers and lower half of body silvery ;
and all the fins much darker than those of the
Parr. The silver scales come off upon slight
pressure, and the Parr-marks are visible below.

When ready to make their trial trip, the Smolts
assemble in sculls of from forty to seventy to-
gether, passing down the river at the rate of about
two miles an hour, — according to some authors, in
family groups. Thus resting in the slack waters,
and at intervals braving the rapids and strong

26 THE SPORTING FISH

currents, they drop gradually down the river,
unless on the occurrence of a heavy flood, which
sweeps them at once into the sea. On meeting
with the tide they remain for two or three days in
the brackish water to fit them for their change of
habits, and then go off to the sea altogether.

What becomes of the young fish after reaching
the ocean is at present a matter of conjecture.
What we do know positively is, that in from six to
eight weeks a number return to the same river
with an increase in weight of 2 to 5 lbs., and
that many of the fry marked when migrating as
Smolts in May and June, were sold in the London
markets as Grilse in July, August, and September.
It is a fair point for conjecture, and would be an
interesting subject for future experiment, whether
the Grilse returning the same season may not
consist principally of the two-year-old Smolts, and
so on ; or whether, should this prove not to be the
case, these older Smolts may not represent the
larger-sized Grilse, and the younger fish the smaller
ones.

Of the habits and food of the Salmon in its
various stages whilst in the sea we know little.
In his evidence before the Select Committee of
the House of Lords in i860, Professor Ouekett
stated it as his opinion that Salmon travelled some
distance along the coasts, and probably into deep
water, in search of the ova of the Echinus or Sea
Urchin — a species commonly inhabiting a depth

OF GREAT BRITAIN, 27

of not less than from 6 to 20 fatlioms. Professor
Huxley disagreed with this view as regards the
nature of the food, and believed that it consisted
chiefly of a numerous class of small creatures {Ento-
mosiracous Crustacea) found in senii-solid masses
upon the surface frequently of deep water — in fact,
that the Salmon swims in a species of animal-soup,
in which it has merely to open its mouth and swal-
low what enters it. Dr. Knox was of opinion that
the food consisted of the ova of various kinds of
Echinodermata (Star-fish, Sea Urchins, Encrinites,
&c.) and some of the Crustacea (Crab and Lobster
family). Faber, in his " Natural History of the
Fish of Ireland," says, "The common Salmon
feeds on small fishes and various small marine
animals." Dr. Fleming and several other natu-
ralists have observed upon their partiality for the
Sand-eel or Sand-launce — a fact which is con-
firmed by Sir John Richardson, who states that
he has himself taken this fish from their stomach.
Sir William Jardine also says that in the north of
Sutherland a mode of Salmon-fishing is success-
fully practised in the firths with Sand-eels attached
to a buoy or bladder, and allowed to float with the
tide up the narrow estuaries. The worm, the
Minnow, and Parr-tail are all, under certain cir-
cumstances, known to be deadly baits for the
Salmon ; and in an essay published in the "Trans-
actions of the Highland Society," vol. ii. p. 392,
IMr. Alex. Morrison says, " I have taken Salmon

28 THE SPORTING FISH

within flood-mark, some of which had two, and
others three full-sized lierrings in their stomachs."

Judging from the perfect arrangement of its
teeth and the known habits of its alhed species,
there can be no doubt that the Salmon is a
voracious feeder, — although the very small amount
of food usually found in the stomach has been
hitherto a source of difficulty in ascertaining its
exact nature. The singularity of this latter cir-
cumstance was formerly the subject of an interest-
ing correspondence in the " Field," in which it was
suggested, amongst other less possible explana-
tions, that the gastric juice of the fish was so
powerful as to dissolve almost instantaneously what-
ever was subjected to its action, — another hypo-
thesis (and the more probable) being that the fish
ejects its food on finding itself hooked or netted.

Be this as it may, one point seems certain, viz.,
that such a marvellously rapid growth as that
shown to take place in the Salmon can only be
produced by a corresponding supply of nutritious
food ; and as regards the travelling or otherwise
of the fish in the sea, the thousands of Salmon
constantly taken in nets along all parts of our
coasts are a clear proof that they do rove, at least
to considerable distances, from their native rivers
and estuaries.

During their sojourn in the sea after their first
spawning the growth of the Grilse is exceedingly
rapid, a considerable proportion at least of such

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 29

fish returning to the river in the summer and
autumn witli an increase in weight of 5 to 9
lbs. In twelve Grilse of 4 lbs. each which were
carefully marked by Mr. Young when descending
to the salt water, this was found to be the average
increase on their return during the same season.

Whether the growth-rate is as rapid in the
after-stages of their existence we have no accurate
means at present of judging ; but reasoning from
analogy it would appear probable that it decreases
somewhat with the advancing age of the fish, and
in very old specimens is perhaps comparatively
trifling. Of such Salmon, the largest recorded to
have been captured in British waters was a female
fish of the weight of 83 lbs., which was exposed
for sale in the shop of a London tradesman in the
year 1821. Another of 74 lbs. is alluded to by
Pennant ; and Mr. T. Grove, the well-known
fishmonger, of Parliament Street, informs me that
he has had Salmon in his possession weighing
upwards of 60 lbs.

Some very large Salmon have been occasionally
caught with the rod. One is noticed by Mr. Las-
celles, as taken in Scotland, which weighed 54I- lbs.
The late Sir Hyde Parker captured one in Sweden
weighing 60 lbs. A Salmon was caught by Sir
H. Davy above Yairbridge in the Tweed, of the
weight of 42 lbs. ; and a former Earl of Home
took another from the same waters of the perhaps
unequalled weight of 70 lbs. within a few ounces.

30 THE SPORTING FISH

Much controversy and many experiments have
been devoted to the question, " Will Salmon live
and thrive entirely in fresh water — that is, in lakes
or ponds which have no communication with the
sea ? " The answer appears to be in the negative,
so far as all practical purposes are concerned. It
has been proved that the fish will so far increase
under these conditions as to attain a maximum
weight of a few pounds ; but the flesh of such fish
is comparatively white and insipid, and as an
article of food altogether different from that of the
sea-bred Salmon.

The characteristics common to all the Salmon and Trout
family {Salnuvtida), of which we have several genera in Great
Britain, are, — bodies scaly ; two back-fins, all the rays of the
first fin soft ; the second fin adipose or fatty, without rays ;
numerous gill-rays; air-bladder large and simple. Of this
family, the first genus {Sa/mo) embraces all fish following the
common Salmon and Trout as their types, in which we find
the head smooth ; teeth on the vomer, the tongue, both bones
of the palate, and on all the jaw-bones above and below ; gill-
rays varying in number, generally from ten to twelve, but
sometimes unequal upon opposite sides ; whilst a great part
of the margin of the upper jaw is formed of the maxillary
bones.

In addition to these, and the generic distinctions already
given, the Principal Characteristics of the True Salmon are : —

Length of head compared to whole length of fish as i to 5.
Body elongated; dorsal and abdominal line about eijually
convex ; lateral line near middle of body, dividing it about
equally. Fleshy portion of tail slender. Scales moderate-
sized, oval, and thin, easily removed when young, adherent
when old. Teeth stout, pointed, and curved, one line on each
side of upper jaw, one line on each bone of palate, one line on

OF GREAT BRITAIN.

31

vomer or central bone in roof of mouth when quite young
(loses a large portion on first visit to salt water, and gradually
all, or all but one or two on most forward point of bone), one
line on each side of lower jaw, one line on each side of tongue
(occasionally two lines on each side of tongue).

Shape and position of fins in Salmon, Bull- Trout, and Sea- Trout.

SALMON.
Tail-fin deeply forked
when young, less so
at 3rd year ; at 5th
year nearly or quite
square.

BULL-TROUT.
Becomes square at an
earlier period than
in .Salmon, and
afterwards gradually
convex.

SEA-TROUT.

Less forked than in
Salmon of same age ;
becomes ultimately
square. Tail shorter
and smaller than in
Salmon.

Dorsal fin : — Hinder
origin about half-
way between point
of nose and end of
tail-fin. Third ray
longest.

Adipose fin : — Hinder
origin half-way be-
tween origin of last
back-fin ray and end
of tail-fin.

Commences about half-
way between point
of nose and origin of
upper tail-fin rays.
Base of dorsal longer
than longest ray.

Hinder origin exactly
half-way between
point of nose and
end of tail-fin. Se-
cond ray longest,
same length as base
of fin.

Nearer to end of tail- Half-way between ori-
fin than to origin of gin of last ray of
last dorsal fin ray. back-fin and end of

tail-fin.

To the above it may be added, that in the Salmon the pec-
toral fin equals two-thirds of the length of the head, whilst in
the Bull-Trout it equals little more than half, — the anal fin also
in the former commences about halfway between the origin of
the ventral fins and the origin of the lower tail-fin rays, and in
the latter nearer to the tail.

The teeth of the Bull-Trout are larger and stronger than in
the other two species, and those of the Sea-Trout are the most
numerous.

Fin-rays: D. 13: P. 12: V. 9: A. 9 : C. 19. Vertebroe, 60.

THE BULL-TROUT.'

|H E Bull-trout, also known as the Grey-
trout, Sewin, and Round-tail, is a
somewhat local fish, sparsely scattered
throughout several parts of the United
Kingdom, and probably more generally familiar to
the ichthyologist than to the fisherman. I believe
the lithograph illustrating this chapter to be the only
really accurate drawing of the fish ever published in
England, most of the representations with which I
am acquainted being strikingly unlike their proto-
type in almost every particular. It was taken from
a male fish of 8j lbs. weight, in beautiful condition,
brought from the Tweed, — a river in which the
bull-trout is more abundant and reaches to greater
perfection than in any other of these islands. The
total length of this specimen was 2 ft. 42 in., and
the girth of the shoulder, just behind the head,
14-Un.

' Salmo Eriox. Sal/iw, a Salmon or trout, Lat. ; criox,
specific name.

O

^-1

m
w

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 33

Although in an edible point of view inferior to
both its congeners, the Sahiion and Sea-Trout,
looked at with a sportsman's eye the Bull-Trout is a
noble fellow. There is a breadth of build and gene-
ral "strengthiness" about him which makes us feel
that he would be a " foeman worthy of our steel "
— if we could but induce him to try conclusions
with us ; if he would but once favourably regard
our feathered dainty with that cautious, cunning
eye of his. But to get a big clean-run Bull-Trout to
take the ily is a piece of luck that does not ver)-
often fall to the fly-fisher's lot, even in the rivers
where he is most plentiful. Lord Home, himself
a Tweed-side man, and who boasted that he had
killed more Salmon with the rod than any other
man ever did, says, that " putting them all together
I am certain that I have not killed twenty clean
Bull-Trout. Of Bull-Trout kelts thousands may be
killed." The season when they run up the Tweed
is also against the fisherman, as only the small fish
of a few pounds weight are to be found in the river
in the spring (April and May), whilst the largest
shoals, and those consisting of by far the biggest
fish, weighing from 6 to 20 lbs., do not leave the
sea until towards the latter end of November.
These November fish are in the best condition.

" The great shoal of these Bull-Trout," says Lord
Home, " not taking the river till after the com-
mencement of close-time are in a great measure
lost both to the proprietor and the public."

D

34 THE SPORTING FISH

Yarrell, however, speaking of the Bull-Trout
generally, appears to differ from this view, as it is
evident that if the fish do not run up the rivers
till November, they spawn later than the salmon ;
whereas Yarrell on the contrary asserts that " they
ascend rivers for the purpose of spawning in the
same manner as the Salmon, but earlier in the
season ; and the fry are believed to go down to
the sea sooner than the fry of the Salmon."
This discrepancy is probably to be explained
by the difference of habits in fish of different
waters.

Some of the most obvious characteristic diver-
gencies between the Bull-Trout, the true Salmon
and the Sea-Trout have already been given in the
preceding chapter.

A glance at the illustration will at once show
the remarkable difference in form between the adult
Bull-Trout, and either the full-grown Salmon, or Sea-
Trout ; the Bull-Trout being obviously shorter,
thicker, and generally more muscular — in fact, as
its name would appear to express more bull-like
in appearance. The Bull-Trout, moreover, is
thickly spotted with brown over the back and
sides, both above and below the lateral line, and
even to the tip of the dorsal fin, which in the salmon
is seldom or ever marked with more than a few
" sploches," and those close to the base of the fin.
The dorsal fin of the Sea-Trout is generally spotted
like that of the Bull-Trout, though not quite so

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 35

thickly. Speaking- generally, the fins of these
latter fish are more muscular and larger in pro-
portion to the rest of its body than those in either
of the other two allied species.

Amongst the localities in which the Bull-Trout
is known to exist, may be mentioned some of the
streams of Devonshire and Cornwall, the Severn,
several of the rivers of .South Wales — I have
caught hundreds in the Usk above Brecon — ■
and, according to Dr. Heysham, some of the
Cumberland waters debouching into the Solway
Frith. In Ireland it occurs very generally on
either side of the northern portion of the island ;
and Killala Bay, Donaghadee, Florence Court,
Beleek, Crawfordsburn, Nannywater, Ballyhalbert,
and Dundrum are all referred to by Thompson as
places whence he had obtained specimens.

Sir William Jardine mentions that the Bull-Trout
has been found in the Annan, Dumfriesshire ; and
by Mr. Low it is stated to be an inhabitant of the
Loch of Stenness, Orkney. The Liddell, which
runs through Roxburghshire, appears to have been
once renowned for this fish. Sir Walter Scott, in
his notes to the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," says
there is an old rhyme which thus celebrates the
places in Liddesdale remarkable for game : —

" Billhope braes for bucks and raes,

And Carit haugh for swine.
And Tarras for the good Bull-Trout,

If he be ta'en in time."

36 BRITISH SPORTING FISH.

" The bucks and roes as well as the old swine
are now extinct, but the good Bull-Trout is still
famous."

All laws relating to Salmon apply equally to the
Bull-Trout and its young, under whatever local
names they may be known.

Principal Characteristics of tlie BuU-Troui (in addition to
those- already given in preceding chapter). — Length of head
compared to body only, as i to 4 ; general form of body similar
to that of the Salmon, but nape of neck and shoulders thicker,
and fleshy portion of tail and base of each of the fins more
muscular. Teeth of female smaller than those of male. Elon-
gation of lower jaw confined to the males only ; not so con-
spicuous as in the Salmon. Scales rather smaller and more
numerous th.an those of a Salmon of equal size. Colour : when
in good condition like that of the Salmon-Trout : at spawning-
time, (in the males) head olive-brown, body reddish- or orange-
brown ; (in the females') blackish grey ; in both fish the back-
fins reddish brown, spotted with darker brown, tail-fins dark
brown, the other fins dusky brown. Vertebra; commonly 59,
occasionally 60.

Fin-rays: D. 11 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 11 : C. 19.

e3;

H

o

X

<
CO

w

THE SEA-TROUT OR SALMON-TROUT.'

HE Sea-Trout, the last of our Silver or
Migratory species, has been identified
with the Salar of the Moselle, so named
by Ausonius in the fourth century —

" Purpureisque Salar stellatus tergore guttis."

In habits also it closely resembles the Salar, or
true Salmon, of modern ichthyologists, and is in-
cluded in all statutory restrictions affecting this
fish or the Bull-Trout.

It is the only one of the Migratory species which
is likely under any circumstances to be confounded
with the Yellow Division of Trout — or rather with
the Salmo fario ; but the difference in colour be-
tween the two fish — the one being silver and the
other golden — is usually too obvious to admit of
doubt. It occasionally happens, however, that the
Sea-Trout, especially when confined for a long time

' Salmo trutta. Trtilta, trout, Lat.

38 THE SPORTING FISH

in a loch, acquires a colour not altogether unlike
that of the Yellow Trout ; and when this is the
case a reference to the teeth on the vomer, or
central bone on the roof of the mouth, will often
settle the point.

These teeth in the common Trout (and also in
the Great Lake Trout) run in two distinct rows,
whilst in the Sea-Trout they run only in a single
row. It is to be observed, however, that the
arrangements of the tedth require to be rather
closely examined, as in the case of the Sea-Trout
the points bend alternately to either side, so as to
present rather the appearance of a thinly planted
double row ; whilst in the common Trout the two
lines of teeth are placed so that a space in one row
has a tooth opposite it in the other, making the
difference appear at first sight to be little more
than one of comparative closeness in the setting of
the teeth.

In regard to the Sea-Trout of the Tweed, Lord
Home has the following note : — "Of this excellent
species I can only repeat that in the Tweed they
have almost entirely disappeared. They afford
good sport to the angler ; but I never saw one
above 7 lbs. weight. Of the Phinock of the Spey,
Hirling of the Nith and Annan, the Whitling
or Whiting of the Esk, all one and the same fish,
I can say nothing. There is a little fish, however,
which makes its appearance about November and
December, but in very small numbers, few only

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 39

being caught, and those of course with the hook.
They are called here Silver-whites, and also Black-
tails, from a dusky-blue spot in the centre of the
tail-fin. They are a beautiful little fish, resembling
much small Sea-Trout ; and if not young Sea-
Trout, I know not what they are."

The Don, the Spey, the Tay, the Annan, and
the Nith, all produce the Sea-Trout in great abun-
dance, as also some of the rivers of Devonshire,
where it is called a Truft". It is found in the
Severn, and in the Cumberland and Cornwall
streams. On the banks of the rivers falling into
the Solway Frith, it is termed in its grilse stage a
Hirling; and in Wales and Ireland, where it is
very numerous, it commonly goes by the name of
White Trout.

White-Trout fishing on some of the Scotch and
Irish lakes is grand sport, and, like other lake-
fishing, has an advantage in that, a boat being
usually employed, ladies who are not strong
enough to wield a Salmon-rod or face the diffi-
culties of a scramble down a rocky river-bank, are
able to take part in it. In speaking of ladies as
White-Trout fishers, I am reminded of a disgraceful
practical joke of which I was, I fear, the chief in-
stigator and abettor, and of which a very charming
young lady, and a capital angler to boot, was one
of the victims. The scene was Loch Maree.
When staying with my friend Mr. Edwin Darval
at the Poolewe Inn, on fishing designs intent, we

40 THE SPORTING FISH

made acquaintance with a gentleman well known
amongst the Cotton Lords of Lancashire, who, with
his daughter, spent most of their days, like our-
selves, in fly-fishing for White Trout on the loch.
One evening at dinner we made a match. We
wagered sundry bottles of champagne that as the
result of the next day's foray amongst the Trout
our " basket " would outweigh theirs. Accordingly,
next morning both parties started betimes for the
lake ; and as the boats kept pretty well within
hail of each other, we could guess by the use of
our eyes and ears that we were well on the win-
ning side, w'hen, just as we were returning. Miss

G hooked, and, after some pretty play with

her light Trout-rod, landed, a Grilse of at least
five or six pounds weight !

The Trout in the part of the loch we had been
fishing ran comparatively small, and despite our
superiority in numbers it was evident that this
" happenin' baste," as our boatman called it, would
turn the day against us.

What was to be done ? For two experienced
fly-fishers, who plumed themselves not a little on
their " talent," to be beaten in a walk by a ' chit
of a schoolgirl ' and an old gentleman of seventy
was ignominy not to be endured. . . . Necessity
is the mother of invention. As we were landing
a bright idea suddenly struck me — I recollected
the story of the "Jumping Frog." . . . Making
some excuse to let our antagonists get ahead a

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 41

little, we rapidly crammed down the throats of our
Trout as many small round pebbles as they could
bear without bursting. . . . Well, yes, it ivas very
shocking — I'm sure, dear reader, you wouldn't
have done such a thing ! . . . We "won the race,"
however — rather a close thing, by-the-bye, after
all — and luckily escaped detection on " weighing
in," notwithstanding the suspicious abdominal ap-
pearances of our fish. " Singular," was the only
remark the old gentleman made, " but your Trout
seem to be all in roe ! "

Of course we confessed our shameful imposture
— after the champagne had been drunk.

A propos of lady-anglers, I would point out here
that fishing — especially such fishing as I have been
describing — is of all field sports that most suited
to their strength and physique. On this subject
I have observed in the " Badminton Library of
Sport,'^ " A woman's figure makes the handling of
the gunstock always rather awkward, and the recoil
is sometimes apt — unless very light charges are
used — to be dangerous. But to fishing there is
no drawback, unless, indeed, it be the petticoats
with which some thick-ankled leader of fashion in
bygone times has managed to cramp and disfigure
one of the prettiest parts of the human form. No
skirts will vex the ' tameless ankles ' of our women
of the future. Already there is a marked and
healthy improvement visible in the length of the
dress, and women need no longer draggle about

42 THE SPORTING FISH

behind them a ridiculous and often muddy train,
which if it does not do duty for a road-sweeper
cannot certainly be shown to subserve to any
other useful purpose.

" The influence of dress has been recognized by
many philosophers as exercising a powerful effect
in moulding the national character ; and I am
quite satisfied that if English men and women,
and those living in town as well as in the country,
were to adopt a dress allowing greater freedom
and play to the limbs and muscles, and (so far as
men are concerned) would discard, once and for
all, chimney-pot hats, frock coats, leg-bags — I use
the term literally, not in a slangy sense — and the
other paraphernalia of the hand-box, there would
be a marked advance in the manliness and 'robust-
ness ' of the race.

" Women who shoot or fish should never hesi-
tate to wear a dress suitable for the purpose ;
long skirts are not only constantly in the way, but
often prove a source of real danger to the wearer.
The same remark holds still more true in regard to
long riding-habits ; and if the readers of these lines
had seen as many accidents, and hair-breadth es-
capes from accidents, in the hunting field, as I have,
owing to long skirts, they would join in the outcry
which ought, in the name of common sense, to be
raised against them. However, I am glad to see
that there is some improvement of late years in
this respect also.

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 43

" In arranging a lady's fishing- dress, next to the
short skirts thick boots more or less waterproof
are the most important item, having regard both
to protection and comfort ; but this is precisely the
point on which the male adviser finds the greatest
difficulty in procuring a favourable hearing for his
views. Simply on the score of ' prettiness ' it
cannot be said that a stout double-soled shooting
or fishing-boot is as ' killinu- ' as a Oueen Anne
slipper, Louis Ouatorze shoe, or a pair of dainty
botthies, expressly designed to set off and empha-
size the delicate arch of the instep, whilst display-
ing the foot and ankle in a position which, if not
quite natural, is at least exceedingly picturesque —

' The flower she touch'd on, dijip'd and rose,
And turn'd to look again.' . . .

" But, my dear lady readers — if I should be so
favoured as to have any — do not let it be for-
gotten that there is ' a beauty of fitness,' and that
where really rough work has to be done, 'ease
before elegance,' and, it might be added, ' health
before both,' is a golden maxim.

" The following hints for dress, which have
been kindly given me by a lady who has had
large practical experience with both rod and gun,
may possibly be found of service : —

" ' Short skirt of linsey-wolsey made as simple as possible —
in fact, a kind of ' housemaid's dress.' Norfolk jacket made
of all wool material. A comfortable toque (the close-fitting

44 THE SPORTING FISH

toque does not catch the wind). It is best to have the costume
of one colour, say a nice heather mixture or whitish grey. I
advise ' linsey ' for the skirt, as it is everlasting in wear, and
the ' all wool ' for the Norfolk jacket, being warmer and more
healthy.

" ' Now for the most important item — boots. They should
fit perfectly, and be made of porpoise-hide, with honest broad
soles and plenty of room for the toes, and flat heels — in their
proper place, not under the arch of the instep. The boots
should lace in the same way that men's shooting-boots do, and
be made to come well up the leg (so that gaiters can be dis-
pensed with). Length of skirt an inch or so above the ankle.

" ' This dress is suitable for either fishing or shooting. If
worn for the latter over a 'clayey' country, a few inches of
light waterproof on the bottom of the skirt are advisable.
Some ladies wear gaiters, but I think if the boots are made high
enough they are not necessary. 'All wool' under-garments
should be worn, from stockings upwards.'

[For this purpose I most strongly recommend,
from personal experience, the 'all wool clothing,'
manufactured and sold by the " Jaeger Sanitary
Clothing Company," Princes Street, Cavendish
Square. These garments, from stockings to over-
coats, all made under Dr. Jaeger's instructions, are
beautifully light, warm and healthy.]

" The comfort to the fisherwoman, as well as to
the fisherman — and, indeed, to all sportsmen — of
boots which are both thoroughly easy and at the
same time completely waterproof, is so obvious
that I make no apology for offering a few hints on
the subject, the more so that during experiments
extending over some decades I have myself suf-
fered ' many things at the hands of many boot-

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 45

makers.' Any bungler in the trade can, of course,
make at least a passably waterproof boot if he
allows himself unlimited latitude in the matter of
weight and clumsiness, or ' stiffness.' The art is
to make a boot waterproof, and at the same time
light, and as soft to the foot as a kid glove."

I have, at last, however, succeeded in finding
some bootmakers who can make shooting-boots
which fulfil these conditions. Messrs. Dowie and
Marshall, 455, Strand, have, working on the lines
I suggested, lately made me several pairs of
shooting-boots weighing only about 2 lbs. the pair,
instead of 3 lbs. or 4 lbs., — the ordinary weight — ■
and as comfortable and impervious to water as the
most exacting can desire.

For " waterproofing " all cloth and woollen
materials — I do not say m.aking them actually
waterproof, but sufficiently so to keep the under-
garments practically dry — I can recommend the
following receipt, given me by R. Atkinson, Esq.,
of Temple Sowerby : —

Dissolve sugar of lead and alum in rain water, one ounce of
each to a quart of water. When settled down, draw off the
clear (this is most easily done with a syphon), saturate the
■woollen article in it (I generally leave it in twenty-four liours),
and dry in the open air. From my own experience I have
found a coat thus treated to be quite waterproof.

From I to 5 lbs. is the usual weight of the Sea-
Trout, but much larger specimens have been re-
corded. In 1840, a male Sea-Trout was taken at

46 BRITISH SPORTING FISH.

Sandstill fishery in the mouth of the Tweed, which
was 37 inches in length, 22 in girth, and which
weighed 24 J lbs.

Such a size is, however, of course entirely ex-
ceptional, and a fish of a more normal weight gives
a better idea of the ordinary run of Sea-Trout as
met with constantly in our lakes and rivers. The
specimen selected for the illustration was a female
Spey fish, weighing i 5 lbs.

Principal Cliaracteristics of the Sea-Tiviit. — Length of head
compared to. body only, as i to 4 ; depth of body compared to
whole length of fish also as i to 4. Teeth small and numerous,
in five rows on up))er surface of mouth, those on the vomer, or
centre bone in roof of mouth, generally extending some dis-
tance along it, the points turning outwards alternately to either
side ; one row on each side of under jaw, and 3 or 4 strong,
sharp, and curved teeth on each side of tongue. Shape of tail-
fin, and relative position of fins, see p. 31. Lateral line very
nearly straight. Scales adhering closely, in form rather a longer
oval than those of the Salmon. Colour when in season : upper
part of head and body bluish black, lighter on sides, which are
marked (principally above the lateral line) with numerous spots
somewhat resembling in form the letter X. Lower parts of
sides and belly, cheeks, and gill-covers silvery white ; back-fins
and tail nearly same colour as back; pectoral fins small, and
bluish white; anal fin and ventral fins white. Vertebrae 58.

Fin-rays: D. 12 : P. 13 : V. 9 : A. 10: C. 19.

«

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Pi

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I

THE COMMON TROUT/

ITH the Common Trout — the Yellow
" burn " and Brown Trout of the angler
— we commence the Golden, non-mi-
gratory species of the genus Salmo.

This group is at once distinguished from the
last-named by the difference in colour, a mark
which, with the one occasional exception in the
case of the Sea-Trout, already referred to, will
generally prevent the possibility of any confusion.
It is also easily distinguished from the Charrs, or
Third Division, by the red and orange colours of
the latter, and by the additional characteristic of
having two complete rows of teeth on the vomer,
whilst in the Charrs the vomer has only a few
teeth, and those on the most forward part.

Of the Yellow Trout there are probably only
two really distinct species in this country — though

' Salmo fario. Salmo, a Salmon or Trout ; fario, the Trout,
Lat.

48 THE SPORTING FISH

the varieties are numerous, and in some instances
present such considerable differences, as to have
led to their being classified as separate species —
as, for example, the Loch Leven and Gillaroo
varieties.

The universally admitted species are —

The Common, or Yellow Trout {Salnio fario),

and
The Great Lake Trout (Salmo ferox).

In regard to each of these the specific charac-
teristics are given in detail at the end of the several
articles ; but a few general observations here will
possibly enable the reader to distinguish them
without the necessity of resorting to a minute
comparison.

1. As regards localities. — The Common Yellow

Trout breeds indifferently in brooks, rivers,
and lakes, whilst the Great Lake Trout is
never found except in or close to lakes, and
these almost always large and deep.

2. The flesh of the Great Lake Trout is generally

a sort of orangey-yellow, and that of the com-
mon Trout pink or white, according to the
nature of the water and the condition of the
fish, the spots also on the former are usually
surrounded by a paler ring, sometimes of a
reddish tint.

OF GREAT B RITA IX. 49

3. Length of head. — The disproportionate size of

the head in the Great Lake Trout is very
remarkable, it being usually little less than
one-fourth of the total length of the fish, tail-
fm included, whilst in the Yellow Trout it
is commonly not much more than one-fitth.

4. Tail-fill. — The tail-fin in the Great Lake Trout

(as shown in the illustration), is nearly square
at the end, and is considerably wider than the
widest part of the body, whilst in the Coiu-
mon Yellow Trout it is very obviously nar-
rower than the same measurement.

By bearing these characteristics in mind, the
student of ichthyology should be readily able to
distinguish with tolerable certainty between the
two species. I say with " tolerable certainty," be-
cause an intimate knowledge of the distinguishing
characteristics of the various species oi Salnionieicc
IS very difficult to acquire, and is, indeed, rarely
attained except by the scientific ichthyologist, or
by the fisherman (angler) who has passed half a
life-time on the river bank, and who ekes out a
little " science " wath a great deal of " practice."

Except in some of the more permanent charac-
teristics already alluded to, the varieties to be
found amongst Trout are simply endless. Its
colouring and even its shape are susceptible of
infinite difference, and vary as much as the quali-
ties of waters (whether in sources or feeders).

E

50 THE SPORTING FISH

geological strata of the beds, and nature and quan-
tity of food supplied by the brooks, streams, rivers,
ponds, lynns, and lakes in which it is bred. The
diversity of colouring is, in fact, a defence fur-
nished by nature for the preservation of the fish,
which would otherwise be so plainly visible upon
the slightest change of water or soil as to fall an
easy prey to its enemies, whether biped or quad-
ruped ; and experiments have shown that the
change is a question of minutes rather than of days
or weeks. Upon its transfer from a light- to a
dark-coloured vessel, or vice versa, the hue under-
goes an instant alteration, and in a very short time
assimilates itself more or less perfectly to that of
its new domicile. Thus, for instance, the Trout of
Lynn Ogwin, almost the whole bottom of which is
formed of s^rass, have, when first caught, a brilliant
emerald gloss over their golden and yellow tints ;
and although the waters are of the utmost clear-
ness and the lake swarming with fish, I was never
able in any one instance to distinguish these from
their surrounding green. Again, in the Spean
Water, Inverness, there are several small tarns in
which I have frequently taken fish of almost the
colour of ink ; yet these tarns actually join the
Spean, where many of the Trout are of a fine rich
yellow, — the cause of the difference being that the
river has a bed of gravel, whilst the tarns are
floored with a deep deposit of bog mud. I have
even known a similar difference to exist between

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 51

Trout frequenting opposite sides of the same river
or loch.

Amongst special breeds of Trout which have in
process of time, owing to local circumstances of
food, &c., acquired certain well-marked, and, so to
speak, permanent, peculiarities, may be mentioned
the Trout of Loch Leven, in Scotland ; the Gil-
laroo Trout of Ireland; and the Boding found in
some of the Cumberland lakes. The Botling is
described by Dr. Davy, in his " Angler in the
Lake District," as ascending the lake streams in
the autumn, and as being a tierce, powerful fish,
frequently attacking the other Salnwnidcc whilst
spawning. In form, it is short and deep, with the
lower jaw much hooked, or curved upwards ; and
when full-grown, its girth considerably exceeds its
length. In the arrangement of its teeth and spots
it resembles closely the ordinary type of Trout.

The largest of the Irish lakes, Loup;h Neafrh, as
well as L. Bofin, L. Corrib, L. Mask, and others,
produce a Trout which has been by some natura-
lists too hastily considered as a distinct species —
the Gillaroo. The inner coats of the stomach in
this fish are considerably thickened, so as to afford
increased muscular power, and the teeth are re-
markably small ; but beyond these, and the mere
divergences in external form, so little difference
appears to exist between it and the common
English Trout as to lead to the conclusion that
the Gillaroo is only a variety of that species.

52 THE SPORTING FISH

The Loch Leven Trout derives its name from the
barren lake, and now dismantled castle celebrated
as the prison of the unfortunate Mary Queen of
Scots ; but it has also been recognized by Dr.
Parnell in several other Scotch lochs.

The X^NO most noticeable points in which the
Loch Leven variety differs from the Common Trout
are (first) in the colour of the flesh, which is — or used
to be — almost of a deep red ; and (secondly) in the
absence of any red spots, which are almost con-
stantly present in all other varieties of the Salmo
fai'io. The red colour of the flesh is supposed,
with good reason, to be due to the small species of
shell-fish or water-snail, which especially abounds
in Loch Leven, and forms, probably, the staple
article of the Trout dietary. During the last thirty
years the Loch Leven Trout are said to have con-
siderably fallen off in colour and condition, owing
to the partial draining of the loch having destroyed
some of their best feeding-ground. They spawn
in January, February, and March.

The Thames and the Avon are amongst the
waters producing the largest breed^ — and I might
say the largest individual specimens — of Salmo
fario, or Common Trout, with which I am ac-
quainted. Thames Trout of 5 lbs. to 10 lbs.
weight are common, and captures are on record of
fish up to at least 16 lbs. or 17 lbs. The same
weights could easily be equalled — and indeed sur-
passed— from the chronicles of the Avon.

o

>

A

K
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o

I

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 53

At Herdcott House, near Salisbury, there is
preserved the skin of a Trout that turned the scale
at 25 lbs., and was in length 4 feet 2\ inches; in
girth it measured 2 feet i inch. Another fish is re-
corded to have been taken in a small tributary of the
Trent at Drayton Manor exceeding in weight 2 1
lbs. ; but there appears to be some doubt whether
it was a bond fide Yellow Trout or a Salino trutta.

The usual spawning-time of Trout is in the
latter end of October or November, and thence up
to the beginning of February (the operation, how-
ever, in each particular fish continuing only about
eight days) ; and at this period the under jaw in
the old males exhibits in a modified degree the
elongation and upward curving characteristic of the
male Salmon at the same time.

From the experiments of Dr. Davy, elsewhere
commented upon, it appears probable that at least
a proportion of Trout, like some Salmon, spawn
only in alternate years. The situation chosen for,
and the mode of conducting the spawning-pro-
cess are also very similar to those noticed in the
Salmon, — the eye, however, of the young fish be-
coming visible in about three weeks, and the ^'g^
being usually hatched in from forty to fifty days.
The number of eggs, in proportion to the weight
of the fish, is about the same as in the case of the
Salmon. The yolk-bag is absorbed in from three
to five weeks ; and in six weeks or two months the
young fry are about an inch long and able to shift

54 THE SPORTING FISH

for themselves. From this time their growth is
rapid or slow according to the nature and quality
of their food and other local circumstances.

In order to ascertain the relative nourishment of
the different descriptions of food, some interesting
experiments were made not many years ago.
Trout were placed in three separate tanks, one of
which was supplied daily with worms, another with
live minnows, and the third with flies. The result
was, that the fish fed with worms grew slowly and
had a lean appearance, — those dieted on minnows
became much larger, — whilst such as were fattened
upon flies only, attained in a short space of time ex-
traordinary dimensions, — w-eighing twice as much
as both the others put together — the quantity of
food eaten by them being actually less.'

On another occasion Trout were kept for many
years in a store stream, and tested with various
kinds of diet, when it was ascertained that in
some instances the increase in weight was as much
as gibs, in four years (or from i to lo lbs.)

Recent piscicultural experiments have demon-
strated the great value of the Fresh-water Shrimp
('Gammari ') as an article offish diet, and for feeding
young fry on, and I once had an exceptionally good
opportunity of verifying the growth-rate of Trout
when fed upon this insect. I quote from my
volumes on Fishing in Messrs. Longman and Co.'s
" Badminton Library of Sport :" —

' Stoddait, "Art of Ani^ding in Scotland."

OF GREAT BRITAJN. 55

"At Encombe, in Dorsetshire, the seat of the
Earl of Eklon, there is an artificial pond of two or
three acres in extent facing the house. The pond
is paved with marble at the bottom and sides, and
is supplied with water from a small fountain fed
from a spring in the neighbouring valley, carried
by an artificial tunnel under some high hills. The
pond is, for all practical purposes, stagnant ; the
fountain's supply not being more than equivalent
to the summer evaporation. From 1S62 to 1S64
this pond was drained off and left absolutely dry,
in order to kill the weeds and clean the bottom.
In 1864 the water was turned in again, and in
August of that year a number of artificially reared
Trout of the same season's hatching, about three-
quarters of an inch long, were put into the pond.
In August, 1866, the pond was again dried for
cleansing purposes, when it was found that the
Trout had grown in the space of two years to an
amazing extent — four or five pounds being the
smallest size, and a weight of six pounds ten ounces
havinof been attained in several cases.

"When visiting at Encombe in September of
the following year, I examined the pond at Lord
Eldon's request, with a view to ascertaining to
what cause, in the absence of any artificial feeding,
the extraordinary growth-rate was to be attributed.
With the aid of a bucket and a rope, the explana-
tion was not hard to tmd : the luholc pond zoas
siviply swarDiing wiik ivalcr shrimps, and on ques-

S6 THE SPORTING FISH

tioning the keeper he assured me that when the
water in the pond was let off there were Uterally
cart-loads of these insects. My informant as to
the facts and dates was Lord Eldon, who also exa-
mined the keeper in my presence as to the circum-
stances, and whose account was again confirmed in
every respect by the corroborative testimony of
Mr. Dickson, one of Lord Eldon's stewards, who
was present and saw the fish weighed when caught.

" The only outlet to the pond was a small drain
at one end, up which nothing could practically pass,
even if there were any Trout streams at hand with
which it could be supposed to communicate.

" It may be mentioned that the weight of the
Trout at the end of the first year was from a quar-
ter of a pound to half a pound."

From this account and the experiments on the
different modes of fattening Trout above referred
to, it is evident that fish and grubs bear no com-
parison with insect-food in point of nourishment,
doubtless in consequence of the amount of phos-
phate of lime contained in the latter. Of the
insects specially contributing to the food of fish,
probably the most nutritious of all are the May-
flies, upon which, when arrived at maturity, the
adult Trout wreak a signal vengeance for the de-
struction effected by the larvae of the one amongst
the eggs of the other.

rrincipal Characteristics of t lie Coiinnon Trout (Salnio f;irio).
(Taken from a llaiuiishire fish, 12 inches in length.) — Length

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 57

of head compared to length of head and body, without tail-fin,
as I to 4 ; depth of body rather greater than length of head.
Profile of back and belly about equally convex. Head blunt ;
lower jaw longest when the mouth is open, but shutting within
the upper jaw on its being closed. Back-fin commencing be-
tween point of nose and commencement of upper rays of tail-
fin ; third ray of back-fin longest, and longer than base of fin.
Small back-fin commencing halfway between origin of large
back-fin and upper extremity of tail-fin ; pectoral fin two-thirds
of length of head ; ventral fins under middle of first back-fin,
and half-way between origin of pectoral fin and end of base of
anal fin ; anal fin beginning halfway between origin of ventral
fin and commencement of lower rays of tail-fin. Tail slightly
forked, very gradually becoming square, or slightly convex in
very old fish. Pyloric cajca ' seldom exceeding 46 in number.
Teeth numerous, strong, and curving inwards, in six rows on
upper surface of mouth and jaw, and four on lower. Teeth
larger in males than in females. Number of scales above and
below lateral line about 25. Vertebra: 56.

The following were the full colours of a Dart-
moor Trout taken by the author in May, 1885 : —

The under line of belly (not seen when fish is looked at
sideways), white ; sides, for one third of the way up, golden
yellow ; two lines of red spots, one above and one below the
lateral line : dark brown spots all over back, also above the
lateral line, and a few below it just behind the gills; a few
black or dark brown spots on the gill-cover {opcrailiiin). Head,
gill-covers, and irides green bronzy-gold ; back and top of
head, bronzy-green ; golden under the throat. Dorsal-fin green
with black spots ; Pectoral- and ventral-fins orange ; anal-fin
green-orange, edged with white ; adipose-fin having a bright
margin of i)inky-red, the same colour as the red spots on the
body ; tail-fin orange-green, top and bottom edges fringed with
orangey-red.

Fin-rays : D. 14 : P. 14 : V. 9 ; A. 11: C. 19.

' The pyloric csca are narrow pouches or ciik-de-sac, more or
less numerous, attached to the pylorus or mouth of the intestines.

THE GREAT LAKE TROUT.'

|HE points in which this fish differs from
the Common Trout, and also the dis-
tinctions by whicli it maybe most easily
recognized, have been already given in
the chapter on Salmon.

The Great Lake Trout, which is perhaps best
known to anglers as the species for which Loch
Awe has always been famous, is probably distri-
buted throughout almost all the larger and deeper
lochs of Scotland. It occurs to my knowledge in
Lochs Ericht, Lochy, Garry, and Laggan, and it
has also been recognized in Loch Shin, in Lochs
Loyal and Assynt, and amongst some of the
Orkney and Shetland Islands. In Ireland it ap-
pears to be an inhabitant of all the best-known
and most extensive lakes, having been found in
Loughs Mask, Melvin, Erne, Corrib, and Neagh,
where it is locally named Biiddagh, the younger

' Salnw fcrox. Salino, a Salmon or Trout ; fcrox, fierce,
Lat.

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BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 59

and smaller-sized fish being termed DolacJunis. It
is the Ullsivatcr Troiit and Grey Trout of the
English Lake-districts, referred to by Dr. Hey-
sham, and was at one time, it appears, erroneously
considered to be identical with the Great Trout of
the Lake of Geneva — a theory contradicted by
Agassiz, who pronounced it to be distinct from any
of the large Continental species.

The specific name/crox has been given to this
fish from its extraordinary fierceness and voracity,
which are such that, having once seized a bait, it
will allow itself to be dragged by its hold for forty
or fifty yards, and when accidentally freed will im-
mediately seize it again. The stomachs of the
specimens that I have caught have been constantly
found gorged with food. The only way of taking
the larger fish is by spinning with a Loach, a small
Parr, or other glittering bait trailed behind a boat,
for which purpose very powerful tackle is required,
as the fish is of immense strength, and its teeth are
nearly as sharp as those of a Pike.

The Great Lake Trout is almost wholly confined
to lochs and deep extensive tracts of water, where
it reigns in solitary grandeur, seldom venturing far
up or down the streams, and never descending to
the sea. It spawns in September.

Principal Characteristics of the Great Lake Trout. — Length
of head compared to total length of head, body, and tail-fin,
about as i to 4^ ; depth of body less than length of head.
Teeth large, strong, and numerous, arranged in six rows above

6o THE SPORTING FISH

and four below — two of the upper rows extending along the
vomer. Origin of back-fin halfway between point of nose and
commencement of upper tail-fin rays ; third ray of back-fin
longest, and equal to length of base of fin ; small back-fin half-
way between last ray of large back-fin and end of tail-fin, and
directly over origin of last ray of anal fin. Fins generally rather
small and muscular. Colours when in season : upper parts and
back-fin deep purplish brown, changing into reddish grey, and
thence into fine orange on breast and belly ; whole body when
fresh out of water as if glazed over with a tint of rich lake-
colour. Gill-covers and back-fin marked with large dark spots,
and whole body covered with markings of different sizes and
varying in number in different individuals, being sometimes
scattered and of large size, and at others thickly set and of
small dimensions. Each spot surrounded by a paler ring occa-
sionally of a reddish hue. Spots becoming more scattered
below lateral line ; none on belly. Pectoral, ventral, and anal
fins yellowish green, darker towards the e.xtremities. Tail of
great breadth and power — broader than greatest depth of body,
slightly forked when young, becoming square with age ; in very
old fish slightly convex. Pyloric ca;ca from 34 to 49 in num-
ber. Scales thin and flexible, different in form from those of
the Trout, and more circular than those of any of the migra-
tory species.

Fin-rays in specimen \
from Loch Awe : )

D. 13: P; 14: V. 9: A. II : C. 19.

In specimens from Lough Neagh, one ray less in D., P., and
A. fins, and one ray more in C. fin.

The only remaining British representatives of
the genus Sabno^ — viz., the Charrs — being, hke
the fcrox, exchisively inhabitants of Lakes, may
appropriately receive in this connection a few
words for the sake of completeness ; although,

' Or true Salmon and Trout species.

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 6i

unfortunately for the Angler, not coming strictly
under the denomination of " Sporting Fish." In-
deed, the species of this very beautiful group
rarely take either bait or fly : so rarely that,
amongst all the lakes, lochs, and loughs I have
fished in all parts of the three kingdoms, I never
actually caught an undeniable Charr but once, and
that was in a little ghastly-looking, deep, black
"tarn" on the top of a mountain in Inverness,
during a snowstorm.

At least five distinct species of Charrs, in-
habiting different localities in the British Islands,
have, however, been identified by Dr. Gunther,
who has written a series of most interesting and
beautifully illustrated papers on the subject. These
species are — i. Sahno Cambncus, the Welsh Charr.

2. Sahno Wilhig/ibii, the Windermere Charr.

3. Saljuo Grayi, the Grey Charr, or Fresh-water
Herring of Lough Melvin, Ireland. 4. Saliiio
Alpinus, the Northern Charr, found in Lake
Helier, Hoy, Orkneys, and probably in other
Scotch waters ; and 5, Saltno Colli, found in
Loughs Esk and Dan, Ireland.

As a Division or Group the Charrs may gene-
rally be distinguished from the two other sections
of the same genus by the brilliant tints of the
belly, which increase in vividness as the spawning-
season approaches, and by the comparatively very
minute size of their scales.

THE GRAYLING.'

ALTHOUGH a well-known and beauti-
ful member of the Salmon family, the
Grayling belongs to a different genus
to the preceding groups, which all follow
the true Salmon and Trout as their types. Its
generic characteristics are : two back-fins ; the base
of the first very long, with numerous rays ; the
second small and adipose, without rays. Mouth
small, with a squarish orifice ; teeth very small and
conical ; air-bladder large ; body elongated. Gill-
rays seven or eight.

In the "Angler-Naturalist,"^ in my remarks on
the Grayling, I observe that — " Whilst yielding
to its sister species the Trout in the qualities of
dash and obstinate courage, the Grayling is yet a
sturdy and mettlesome fish — ' a foeman worthy of

' Thymalhis vulgaris. Thyiihil/its, "thymy" — ixom t/iyiutiiii,
thyme, and rii/garis, common, Lat.

- "A Popular History of British Fresh-water Fish," or the
" Anglcr-Naturahst." London : Routledge and Sons.

s-^

^

I

i

w

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 63

our steel ;' and if the former is the liandsomer, the
latter must, I think, be admitted to be the prettier
species of the two. The Trout has, so to speak, a
Herculean cast of beauty; the Grayling rather
that of an Apollo — light, delicate, and gracefully
symmetrical."

Though abounding in some streams, the Gray-
ling is a remarkably local and even comparatively
rare fish, thriving best in rivers the bottoms of
which are composed principally of sandy gravel or
loam — a soil highly favourable to the production
of the insect food on which it in a great measure
subsists. Rocky or stony bottoms are very inimi-
cal to its breeding; and this is probably the reason
why, though flourishing in many Continental
waters, so few exist in those of Ireland or Scot-
land. Indeed, even in England, a dozen names
or so include all our streams which have any right
really to be considered as properly Grayling-
waters ; and these, with hardly an exception, be-
long to the southern and western portions of the
island. The fact is no doubt accurately stated by
Mr. Blaine when he says, " Grayling require other
peculiarities of location besides those of tempera-
ture, such as, for instance, the general character of
the water they inhabit, and certain circumstances in
the natureof its composition derived from its sources.
It is probably owing to the abstraction of some of
these requisites that the breeding of the fish in
several rivers in which they have been attempted to

64 THE SPORTING FISH

be naturalised has not been attended with much
success. In some they soon disappeared ; in others
they remained, but never thrived ; while in some
waters, though they lived, and at first increased,
yet they were afterwards observed to shift their
quarters to different grounds, in most of which
cases it proved, as in the Test of Hampshire, that
they migrated from above downwards, probably in
search of deeper and more tranquil waters : for the
angler cannot fail to observe that Grayling do not,
like Trout, affect very rapid shallows and the
coldest torrents ; on the contrary, they seem to
thrive best where milder currents alternate with
deep and extensive pools." On these rapids, how-
ever— or "stickles," as they are termed — small
Grayling may frequently be found, but the large
fish rarely, except in the spawning-season. The
haunts of large Grayling are the deepish and
slowly-running tails of streams or pools, a few
yards before the formation of fresh shallows ; and
here they will be found at all times, except when
spawning.

It has been asserted that the Grayling is not,
like the Trout, indigenous to this country, but was
introduced by the monks on account of its edible
qualities — a supposition to which the peculiarity of
the local distribution doubtless gave rise. The fol-
lowing is a list of the best known Grayling waters,
though I will not say that there may not be others
with which I am unacquainted : —

OF GREAT BR ITALY. 65

In Hampshire and Wiltshire the GrayUng" is
found in the Test, the Itchen, and in both the
Avons, &c. ; in Herefordshire, in the Teme, the
Lug, the Wye, and the Arrow ; in Shropshire, in
the Teme and Clun ; in Staffordshire, in the
Hodder, the Trent, the Dove, the Blythe, and the
Wye ; in Derbyshire, in the Dove ; in Merioneth-
shire, in the Dee, between Curlen and Bala ; in
Lancashire, in the Ribble ; in Yorkshire, in the
Derwent, near Scarborough, in the Yore, the
Wharfe, and in the Whiske, near Northallerton,
in the Rye, Swale, Costa, and (Yorkshire) Dove,
near Pickering ; in Berkshire, in the Kennet, at
Hungerford ; and in Cumberland, according to
Heysham (but this appears doubtful), in the Esk
and the Eden. In Scotland the Grayling may now
be considered to be established in the Clyde, and
it has also been recently caught in the Annan, as
recorded by a writer in the " Eishing Gazette."

The Teme Grayling has the reputation of being
the finest in England, and when in the height of
condition — that is, in October or November — and
just taken from the water, is certainly one of the
most beautiful fish that can be imagined. At this
time the back is of a deep purple colour, with
small dark irregular spots on the sides ; the sto-
mach is brilliantly white, with a fringe or lacing of
gold ; the tail-, pectoral, and ventral fins are of a
rich purplish tint. The dorsal fin is very large —
almost disproportionately so — and is covered with

F

66 THE SPORTING FISH

scarlet spots and wavy lines upon a dark ground
of reddish-brown. The little velvet back-fin near
the tail is also dark brown or purple, and the whole
body is shot with violet, copper, and blue re-
flexions when seen in different lights. Properly to
appreciate this colouring, the fish should be laid
horizontally upon the hand to be looked at, in
which position its varied tinting is seen to the
ofreatest advantage.

In addition to its delicate colouring, the Grayling
has been supposed to possess a peculiar thymy smell,
from which it takes its specific designation. The
English name, " Grayling," is probably a modifica-
tion of" Grey-lines," in reference to the longitudinal
dusky-blue bars with which its body is marked.

In size Grayling vary according to locality; but
they rarely exceed 3 lbs. in weight, and by far the
greater number of those taken are under i lb. Oc- .
casionally, however, they are met with of even a
larger size than that above named : Mr. T. Lister
Parker took three fish in the Avon, near Ring-
wood, which together weighed 12 lbs. ; a Grayling
of 4nbs. weight was killed in the Test, and one of
5 lbs. is recorded to have been taken in the neigh-
bourhood of Shrewsbury.

No doubt the possible ultimate growth of the
Grayling depends upon the amount and quality of
its food, which, besides flies, worms, caterpillars,
etc., consists of the larvae of dragon-flies, May-flies,
and other ephemera.

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 67

Unlike the rest of its congeners of the Salmon
family generally, the Grayling never jumps out of
water, and is apparently unable to surmount either
natural or artificial obstructions or to stem very
rapid torrents, being, in fact, much more prone
to going down than up the stream. It has the
power, however, of raising itself rapidly to the
surface, and of descending again with stone-like
velocity — a faculty which has been ascribed to the
action of the large dorsal fin striking either up-
wards or downwards against the current, but which
is more probably attributable to the unusual size
of the swimming- or air-bladder.

The eggs are numerous but considerably smaller
than those- of the Trout, being about the size of
partridge-shot, and when viewed in the rays of the
sun having very much the colour of the opal. The
body of the embryo fish becomes distinctly visible
in about nine days, and the egg itself hatches in
fourteen or fifteen days from the date of deposit, —
results obtained in the case of the eggs of the
Trout in about thirty-five and fifty days respec-
tively.

The spawning-time is in April or the beginning
of May, the fish getting into condition in July, and
reaching its prime in October and November,
when most of the other Salmonidce are going off.
The Grayling has, moreover, according to Sir
Humphry Davy, the advantage of rarely being so
much out of season as to be unfit for food or un-

68 BRITISH SPORTING FISH.

willing to take a bait if judiciously offered. This
author, who has supplied a very fair history of the
fish, considered that it might be taken at all times
of the year, and that when there were flies in the
water it would generally rise to them.
'' The specimen from which the illustration is
taken, was a beautiful Teme fish about a pound and
a half in weight. Its proportions were : — The
total length of the head, body, and tail-fin, being
considered as 5^, the length of the head alone
as one. Depth of body for about half its length
slightly greater than the length of head ; tail forked.
Number of scales in lateral line, 27.

Further Cliaractcristics cf flic Grayling (as found in a speci-
men 10 inches long). — Head small and pK)inted, flattened at
the top. Between point of nose and commencement of first
back-fin equal to one-third entire length, tail-fin rays excluded.
Back-fin very long at the base, nearly equal to twice the length
of its longest ray ; pectoral fins long, narrow, and pointed ;
ventral fins commencing directly under centre of back-fin ;
final fin commencing halfway between origin of ventral fins and
fleshy part of tail. Opening of mouth when viewed in front
squarish ; teeth small, numerous, and curved ; none on tongue,
and only a few on end of vomer, or central bone in roof of
mouth, and on the adjoining ends of the bones of the palate,
situated in single rows on the jaws. Profile of back slightly
convex, that of belly nearly straight. Scales large, seven in an
oblique row above the lateral line. Vertebrae 58. Colour : sides
marked with about 15 dusky longitudinal bands or bars; the
general hue becomes darker with age, and about the spawning-
season the pectoral fins are reddish with small black spots : for
further remarks on colouring see p. 65.

w

THE PIKE.'

|HE Pike, of which we have only one

^^ recognized species in this country and
^^ ^y on the Continent, is common to most
"""^ of the rivers and lakes of Europe and
North America, and the INIascalonge {Esox estor)
and the Northern Pickerel {Esox lucioidcs) — both
inhabitants of the great lakes; the common Pickerel
{Esox reticulatus) — indigenous to all the ponds
and streams of the Northern and Midland States ;
the Pickerel of Long- Island {Esox fasciatits) —
probably confined to that locality ; the White
Pickerel {Esox vittatus), the Black Pickerel {Esox
niger), and Esox phaleratus — all inhabitants of the
Pennsylvanian and Western waters, have been
generally recognized as distinct species. Of these
the first two are the types, the others following,
more or less closely, the same formation as to
comparative length of snout, formation of the
lower jaw, dental system, gill covers, &c.

As regards the European Pike, it seems pro-
bable that there may be varieties yet to be dis-

' Esox Indus — Esox, a Pike ; luciiis, the Pike, Latin names.

70 THE SPORTING FISH

covered, as Dr. Genzik, the well-known naturalist
of Lintz, informed me that he had found some
specimens which had teeth like the fangs of a
viper — capable of being erected or depressed at
pleasure, — a circumstance the more remarkable as
the jaws also of the Pike are furnished with extra
bones to increase the size of its gape, very similar
to the corresponding bones in the Viper-con-
formation.

Indigenous in all climates which are not tropical,
a chilly or even frigid latitude is apparently essen-
tial to the well-being of the Pike. Thus in Nor-
way and Sweden, Siberia, and the lakes of Canada
and Lapland it reaches its full development, breed-
ing in vast numbers, and commonly attaining the
length of 4 or 5 feet, whilst it rapidly degenerates
on approaching warmer latitudes — diminishing in
geographical distribution with the spruce fir, and
ceasing entirely in the neighbourhood of the
Equator.

Of the numerous names by which the Pike is
known the common term " Pike," or " Pickerel,"
is probably the only one derived from our own
language ; and this would appear to have origi-
nated in the Sa.xon word ////', signifying " sharp-
pointed," in reference doubtless to the peculiar
form of the Pike's head — or possibly teeth }

In Sweden the fish is named Giidda, and in
Denmark (amongst other variations) Gcdde, appa-
rently identical with the Lowland Scotch, Gcdd,

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 71

though spelt somewhat differently. M. Valen-
ciennes has published a long list of the names
which the fish bears amongst the Sclavonic and
Tartar races, but none of them seem to have any
relation to those by which it is known on the
western coasts of Europe.

The Pike is the Brocket of the French, by whom
it is also called JSrocketoii, Lance or Lanceron, and
Becqiwl — the last having reference doubtless to
the flattened or duck-bill-like form of the muzzle.

The ancient classical name of the Pike was
Ltuiiis^ under which it is mentioned by several
old writers ; and from this root have doubtless
sprung the terms Lnce or Lucie (the "White
Lucie" of Shakespeare and of heraldry), as well
as the Luccio or Luzzo of the Italians.

To the ancient Greeks, so far as we are aware,
the Pike was a stranger; or if known, has escaped
notice in the writings of Aristotle. In the works
of several Latin authors it is mentioned, and is
stated to have been taken of very great size in the
Tiber ; but it has been doubted by naturalists
whether this fish — the Esox of Pliny— is synony-
mous with the Esox, or Pike, of modern ichthyology.

' Nobbes suggests that the name Lucius is derived "either
a luceiido, from ' shining in the waters,' or else (which is more
probable) from Lukos, the Greek word for lupus : for as," says
he, " the wolf is the most ravenous and cruel amongst beasts, so
the Pike is the most greedy and devouring among fishes. So
that Lupus Fiscis, though it be proper for the Sea-wolf, yet it
is often used for the Pike itself, the Fresh-water Wolf."

72 THE SPORTING FISH

Ausonius, however, living about the middle of the
fourth century, clearly alludes to the Pike in his
well-known lines : —

" Lucius obscurus ulva lacunas

Obsidet. Hie, nullos meusarum lectus ad usus,

Fumat fumosis olido nidore popinis."

The age to which the Pike will attain has been
always a debated point amongst naturalists. Pen-
nant mentions one ninety years old. Pliny con-
sidered it as the longest-lived, and likely to reach
the greatest age, of any fresh-water fish ; while
Sir Francis Bacon, agreeing in this view, yet
limited its probable maximum to forty years.

In natural connexion with this part of the sub-
ject— the limit of age in the Pike — occurs that of
its probable growth and size when suffered to
attain to full development. It has been the
custom amongst modern writers to aftect a civil
disbelief in the accounts of very large Pike handed
down to us by numerous credible witnesses ; and
the prevailing impression appears to be that a
weight of 30 or 40 lbs. is about the real maximum
attained. I could easily refer, however, to many
attested examples of Pike having been taken in
the British Islands up to the weight of 70, 80, and
even 90 lbs. ; but a single instance, too well au-
thenticated to admit of doubt, will suffice. I refer
to the case of the Kenmure Pike — mentioned also
by Daniel in his " Rural Sports," and by Dr.
Grierson and other authors — the weight of which

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 73

was 72 lbs. It was taken in Loch Ken, Galloway,
a sheet of water belonging to the Castle of Ken-
mure, where the head of the fish is still preserved,
and may be seen by any one sufficiently curious
or sceptical to desire ocular demonstration. To
give a general idea of the size of the Pike, I
may quote one measurement — that across the
back of the head, — the width of which was nine
inches.

Dr. Genzik, who gave me some valuable in-
formation concerning the Continental Pike, states
that, in the fish-markets of Vienna, Lintz, and
Munich, Pike are not unfrequently exposed for
sale of 80 and 90 lbs. weight and upwards, — that
the fishermen on the Danube, near Strudel and
Wirbel, have legends of specimens 15 and 20 feet
long, which break through all their nets, — and
that at Traunkirchen, on the Gmiinden Water,
there are still living some fishermen who declare
that on one occasion when dragging the lake they
enclosed a Pike longer than either of their boats,
and that they began, as they expressed it, " to say
their prayers, thinking the enemy was on their
nets ; the Pike, however, with one spring, jumped
over the nearest boat and escaped " !

At Oberneukirchen Dr. Genzik himself saw a
Pike taken out of a large tank or preserve, which
after being cleaned, weighed 97 lbs. and some
ounces ; and an officer of Tyrolese Rifles informed
him that whilst at Bregentz during the past au-

74 THE SPORTING FISH

tumn (1862), he was present when a Pike was
caught weighing upwards of 145 lbs.

After this we may be indined to give more
credence to Bloch's statement that he once exa-
mined a portion of the skeleton of a specimen
which measured eight feet.

The rate of growth of the Pike has been by
different authors variously estimated at from i to
5 lbs. a year; but these estimates do not, generally,
appear to be based on any very reliable grounds,
still less upon actual experiment, and therefore go
but a little way towards advancing our knowledge
of the subject. My own e.xperience leads me to
believe that the growth-rate is susceptible of very
great variation, depending upon the nature of the
water and the amount of food supplied to the
fish, but that in the open waters— at least in Eng-
land— it seldom averages more than i lb. a year
during the first two years, and from i-^- to 2 lbs. a
year afterwards, decreasing again after eight or
nine years to about the original ratio. This ave-
rage cannot, of course, be taken as any index of
what may be done by keeping Pike in rich pre-
serves or fattening them in stews, as the capacity
of the Pike for food is well nigh inexhaustible, and
is in analogy with its digestion the marvellous
rapidity of which has been aptly described as re-
sembling the action of fire.

Of one point, however, I have fully convinced
myself, viz. that during the first year the maximum

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 75

growth, in open waters, does not much exceed
half a pound. The grounds of this conclusion are
briefly as follow : — Pike spawn in March or April ;
in June, when Pike-fishing commences, I have
not unfrequently taken, and seen taken, with
the net, small Jack of about an ounce, or a little
more, in weight ; in September, again, I have
constantly taken them, with a minnow, of ihrce or
four ounces ; and in January and February speci-
mens of from yft'^ to seven otinccs ; whilst I have
never within my memory caught the smaller-sized
fish at the later periods, or vice versa, — thus point-
ing clearly to the inference that at these seasons
there were young Jack of those respective sizes,
and none others — in other words, that the different
sizes represented the different stages of growth.
These I believe to be the fish of about \ lb. of
the following season.

The Pike is a true cosmopolitan in his feeding.
Fish, flesh, and fowl are alike acceptable to him.
Animal, mineral, and vegetable — his rapacity de-
vours them all. Lord Walsingham writes to me
that he once caught a pike with a hare's foot, and
on another occasion with a dead rat ! Nothing, in
short, that he can by any means get into his
stomach comes amiss to him ; and imperial man
himself has on more than one occasion narrowly
escaped being laid under contribution to his larder.
His own species enjoy no immunity from this uni-
versal rapacity; on the contrary, it has been asserted

76 THE SPORTING FISH

that more young Jack are destroyed by their own
parents than by any or perhaps all other enemies
put together.

A remarkable instance of this characteristic
propensity was communicated to me by Mr. L —
of Chippenham, Wiltshire, to whom the incident
occurred. This gentleman had set a trimmer in
the River Avon over night, and on proceeding
the next morning to take it up he found a heavy
Pike apparently fast upon his hooks. In order to
extract these he was obliged to open the fish, and
in doing so perceived another Pike of considerable
size inside the first, from the mouth of which the
line proceeded. This fish it was also found neces-
sary to open ; when, extraordinary to state, a
third Pike of about \ lb. weight and already
partly digested was discovered in the stomach of
the second !

Of the indiscriminating character of the Pike's
appetite a more apt illustration could not perhaps
be given than the following, kindly communicated
to me by Lord Walsingham, who is himself an en-
thusiastic angler and a close observer of nature : —
" A newly cut ash-pole, with the bark peeled off
for a few inches at the small end, was lying across
the punt in which I was fishing, the pole was some-
what bent, and owing to the wind and my move-
ments in the boat, the end frequently dipped in
the water. A Pike dashed at it and seized it,
leaving the marks of his teeth distinctly visible in
the wood."

OF GREAT BRITAIN. ^^

Another amusing instance was related to me by
an eye-witness : — Upon a piece of water belonging
to Wandle House, Wandsworth, some toy vessels
were being sailed, at the stern of one of which was
attached a small boat fancifully decorated with
green and gilding. As the little craft swept
briskly across the pool, with her boat in tow, a
Pike suddenly darted from the water and seized
the boat in his jaws, well nigh capsizing the whole
flotilla in his efforts to drag his capture to the
bottom. To this task, however, his strength was
apparently unequal, and a fresh breeze springing
up, the submerged nautilus reappeared on the
surface and continued her voyage, but had hardly
got fairly under way when the Pike again dashed
forward to the attack, seizing her as before, and
repeating the performance vmtil the boat grounded
on the opposite bank.

It has been mentioned that in rare instances
and when under the influence of either extreme
anger or hunger. Pike have been very clearly con-
victed of attempted manslaughter. Such being
the case, it is hardly necessary to say that it is by
no means uncommon for animals, often of large
size, to be similarly attacked, and, in the case of
the smaller species, devoured, by this fish. Ac-
counts are on record of otters, dogs, mules, oxen,
and even horses being assaulted. Poultry are
constantly destroyed by the Pike, — " the dwellers
in the ' Eely place,'" as Hood punningly says,

78 THE SPORTING FISH

" having come to Picc-a-dilly." I have seen a
Pike take a pigeon that I had myself shot from
a pontoon at the Welsh Harp— the circumstance
indeed was witnessed by a number of people. Lord
Walsingham writes to me : — " Partridge shootintr
near a large piece of water I wounded, late in
the evening, a bird, which flew in the direction of
the water ; the next day I was Pike fishing, and
about fifty yards from the land, just opposite where
the wounded bird must have reached the water, I
caught a Pike of about 8 lbs. with a partridge in his
stomach— undoubtedly my bird. I discovered it
by seeing feathers sticking out of his throat while
extracting the hooks." Sometimes the heads of
swans diving for food encounter instead the ever-
open jaws of this fish, and both are killed ;
whilst among the frogs he is the very " King
Stork" of the fable. He will even seize that most
unsavoury of all morsels, the toad, although in this
case the inherent nauseousness of the animal saves
it from being actually swallowed, — its skin, like
that of the lizard, containing a white highly acid
secretion which is exuded from small glands dis-
persed over the body.

Pike will attack both the land- and water-rat ;
occasionally pouching them, but more frequently
treating them as in the case of the toad, — a fact
confirmed by Captain Williamson, who adds : " But
whether owing to the resistance that animal (the
rat) makes, which I have witnessed to be very

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 79

fierce — and that under water too — or whether
owing to the hair or scent displeasing them, I know
not ; but they do not appear to be very partial to
the quadruped."

Sometimes the Pike lies in ambush, protruding
only its eyes and grim muzzle through the weeds,
when the movement of seizing a victim is little
beyond a quick turn of the body and an opening
and shutting of the jaws ; but generally he takes
his prey with a rush and a flash, emerging so sud-
denly and with such startling energy, that I have,
in more than one instance, known a Troller lite-
rally drop his rod from the effects of sheer terror.

Woe to the fish or flesh that gets once fairly
enclosed between the jaws of a Pike ! From that
more than Regulus-like incarceration it rarely
effects its escape. Like the Remora, which will
allow itself to be cut to pieces rather than relinquish
its hold, the Pike exhibits an extraordinary tenacity
of purpose and reluctance to quit its grasp of a
prey once seized.

A Pike will even constantly make a considerable
fight, and actually allow itself to be dragged many
yards by the obstinacy of its hold, without ever
having been pricked by a hook — shaking the bait
out of its mouth perhaps when almost in the net.
I have witnessed the same thing to occur with
a cork ball tied to a string and drawn across a
stock-pond.

This mixture of determination and ferocity

8o THE SPORTING FISH

makes the Pike the undisputed master of our fresh
waters, akhough it has been asserted that, from its
superior momentum, a Trout or Sahnon of equal
weight would have the advantage in a pitched
battle. I doubt it much. What chance these fish
have against the Pike is shown by the effect of
introducing the latter into trouting and salmon
waters, where the new-comer speedily dispossesses
the rightful tenants. Witness, for instance, the
ravages committed in the Canterbury River, in
the Wandle, in the Colne near Draycot and Cow-
ley, in the Teviot, and in Lochs Katrine, Lomond,
Awe, and Jurit in Scotland ; and the same thing is
known to have taken place in many of the best
Irish waters, where the Pike is still continuing to
spread and multiply, displacing by degrees the
Trout and other indigenous races.

Indeed, how Pike spread is a problem which it
has perplexed naturalists to explain. A stream, or
pond, or loch, reserved perhaps for centuries to
the docile phlegmatic Carp, or " star-stoled Trout,"
suddenly begins to show symptoms of a falling off;
the next year matters are worse ; the water is
dragged, and the first fish to come up in the net is
probably a Pike. How the Pike came there, or
who put it there, remains unexplained ; but the
cause of the depletion of the water is no longer a
mystery. Some authors have accounted for these
singular immigrations by supposing that the Pike,
like the Eel, actually travels overland in wet

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 8i

weather from one pond to another ; and several
curious circumstances, which have come to my
knowledge, would appear to lend some colour to
the supposition.

In order to test the migratory theory, Mr.
Newenham, an English resident at Antwerp, had
two small ponds excavated near together, and
stocked one with Pike, and the other with small
Roach, Dace, &c. At the end of the second day he
caused both ponds to be emptied, when it was found
that several of the Pike from pond No. i had made
their way by some means into pond No. 2, and
had destroyed a great part of the fry.

A singular fact, pointing indirectly to the same
conclusion, once came under my own observation.
A pool five or six yards square, for the reception
of small fish, had been constructed close to a stew-
pond containing Pike ; the work had been finished
in the afternoon, and the pond left to fill. On
visiting it the next morning, I was surprised to find
it already occupied by a Jack of about \ lb. weight,
which had contrived thus early to take possession.

The sudden appearance of Pike at certain times
is not less remarkable than their unaccountable
disappearance at others. There is no doubt that
in seasons of great heat or unusual drought, when
ponds or reservoirs have become rapidly dried up,
the Pike that were in them have vanished in a
very extraordinary manner, and that upon the
return of the water they have been immediately

G

82 THE SPORTING FISH

found in apparently undiminished numbers — a
phenomenon, however, by no means confined to
Esocidcr, as the same thing has been observed with
regard to Carp and Tench ; and Eels it is well
known frequently make comparatively long jour-
neys " overland."

Although from its vigorous and unsparing de-
structiveness the Pike has many detractors and few
apologists, it must not be supjDosed that it is alto-
gether without any of the softer instincts. On the
contrary, it has been known to exhibit under par-
ticular circumstances a very decided amount of
friendship, and even affection, especially in the
conjugal form. The " one virtue," however, to
which, amongst a thousand crimes, the name of the
Pike has been specially linked is gratitude : it has
been asserted that he never attacks his physician,
the Tench. To this subject I have referred in
the notice of the latter fish.

The haunts of Pike vary considerably at diffe-
rent times of the year, and also vary with the
nature of particular waters ; but it usually prefers a
still, unfrequented spot, plentifully supplied with
weeds and flags, selecting if possible a gravelly or
sandy bottom. The neighbourhoods of reeds,
docks, bulrushes, and the broad-leaved water-lily
are its favourite resorts ; and of these, a flooring of
lilies, with from four to six feet of quiet current
over it, and a wall of reeds at the side, springing
from the bottom, is the best —

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 83

" A league of grass washed by a slow broad stream
Tliat, stirr'd with languid pulses of the oar,
Waves all its lazy lilies and creeps on. . . ."

Indeed, it may be said that the reed and the hly
are to the Pike what the hollybush is to the wood-
cock. In lochs and meres it commonly frequents
the most shoal and weedy parts, small inlets and
little bays, or the mouths of streams where minnows
or other fry congregate ; and in rivers, back-waters
and dam-heads, eddies between two streams, or in
fact any water that is weedy, of moderate depth,
and not too much acted upon by the current. As a
general rule, Pike will be found during the summer
in or close upon the streams, and in winter, after
the first heavy flood, in the large eddies and deeps.
At the latter season the fish feed best about mid-
day, with a breeze and a warm sun ; and in the
summer months at morninor and evenin"- with a
cloudy sky and plenty of wind. A hot, sultry day
is always inimical to success in Pike-fishing ; as also
a muddy or flooded state of the water : a full
water, however, if not discoloured, is very favour-
able.

When in high season, the general colour of the
Pike is green spotted with bright yellow, whilst
the gills are of a vivid red ; when out of season
the green changes to a greyer tint, and the yellow
spots become pale. It spawns about March or
April, according to the climate, forwardness of the
spring, and other local circumstances, — the young

84 THE SPORTING FISH

females of three or four years old taking the lead
and the dowagers following. For this purpose
they quit the open waters in pairs, and retire into
the fens, ditches, or shallows, where they deposit
their spawn amongst the leaves of aquatic plants ;
and during this period the male may often be ob-
served following the female about from place to
place, and attending upon her with much apparent
solicitude. As many as 80,000 eggs have been
counted in one fish. When the spawning-process
is complete the fish return again into the rivers,
and are then for some weeks in a state of partial
stupefaction, and unfit for food. In streams they
begin to be in condition again about June, and are
in their best season in November; but in still
waters the recuperative process is much slower.

Characteristics of tlic Pilie Family. — Head depressed, large,
oblong, blunt. Body elongated, rounded on the back ; sides
compressed, covered with scales. Dorsal fin placed very far
back, over anal fin. Jaws, palatine bones, and vomer furnished
with teeth of various sizes.

Principal Characteristics of the common Pike. — Body elon-
gated, nearly uniform in depth from head to commencement of
back-fin, then becoming narrower ; body covered with small
scales ; lateral line indistinct. Length of head compared to total
length of head, body, and tail, as i to 4. Back- and anal fins
placed very far back, nearly opposite each other. From point of
nose to origin of pectoral-fin, thence to origin of ventral fin, and
thence to commencement of anal fin are three nearly equal dis-
tances. Pectoral and ventral fins small ; rays of anal fin elongated.
Tail somewhat forked. Shape of head long, flattened, and wide ;
gape extensive. Lower jaw longest, with numerous small teeth
round the front. The sides with five or six very large and sharp

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 85

teeth on each side. Upper jaw somewhat duck-billed. Teeth
on vomer small ; on the palatine bones larger and longer, parti-
cularly on the inner edges : none on superior maxillary bones.
Head covered with mucous orifices placed in pairs. Cheeks
and upper parts of gill-covers covered with scales. Colour of
head and upper part of back dusky olive-brown, growing lighter
and mottled with green and yellow on sides, passing into silvery
white on belly ; pectoral and ventral fins pale brown ; back-,
anal-, and tail-fins darker brown, mottled with white, yellow, and
dark green.

THE PERCH/

^UVIER has taken the Perch as the
type of his leading genus. In other
words, it is the first Species, of the first
Genus, of the first family, of the first
Order, of the first Series of fish in his systematic
classification. In the present essay, however, I
have found it on the whole more convenient not to
adopt the strictly ichthyological sequence in re-
ferring to the different species of sporting fish, and
the Perch here takes his place not according to
family ' descent,' but as naturally following after the
Pike, with which in actual sport he is so constantly
associated.

The Perch — the common Perch of our ponds and
rivers — is very generally distributed over almost
the whole of Europe and Great Britain, and is one
of the most generally recognized inhabitants of
English waters from the Tweed to the Land's
End. In Wales it is a somewhat local fish, and
confined principally to stagnant waters; in Ireland
more widely diffused, though still in distribution

^ rercafluviatilis. Perca, the Perch ; fliiviatilis, of the river,
Lat.

^

W

X

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 87

rather unequal ; in Scotland very general south of
the Frith of Forth and comparatively rare to the
north of it, ceasing entirely amongst the innumer-
able waters of Sutherland and Ross, or, where
observed, owing its introduction to very recent
times.

Of the British Perch, so far as my experience
extends, the Thames produces the best in the
matter of quality ; Windermere, and Slapton Ley,
in Devonshire, the greatest show as to quantity ;
and the Kennet from Hungerford to Reading, or
perhaps the Avon below Sommerley, the finest
specimens for general size and weight. The num-
bers of Perch in Windermere and Slapton Ley are
almost incredible : but their size is commonly in-
significant.

The Perch of the Thames, which is also notice-
able for its fine colouring, probably owes its supe-
rior gastronomic attractions to the great purity of
the stream above locks as well as to the wide
range in the choice of food, spawning-ground, &c.,
which it affords ; but in whatever waters the fish
is bred it is seldom other than palatable as well
as wholesome, and it is on this account a frequent
item in the invalid's dietary. " More wholesome
than a Pearch of Rhine," says a German proverb
mentioned by Izaak Walton, who also quotes a
learned authority to the effect that it possesses a
small stone in the head thought to be very " medi-
cinable."

88 THE SPORTING FISH

The Perch selected for iUustration was a Kennet
fish ot 3 lbs. weight — one of the most perfectly
shaped specimens that I ever met with.

The Perch lives long out of water (resembling
in that respect Carp and Tench), and if carried
with care and occasionally moistened will, in cold
weather, exist for several hours in this condition.
Yarrell says that Perch are constantly exhibited in
the markets of Catholic countries, — where doubt-
less they are a popular article of " fast ;" — and that
on these occasions, when not sold, they are taken
back to the [:)onds from which they came to be re-
marketed at another opportunity.

The size to which the Perch will attain is some-
what doubtful. The largest specimen that I ever
remember to have met with was preserved in a
small inn in Perthshire. It was very imperfectly
stuffed, and had no doubt shrunk considerably in
the operation ; but the label stated that it weighed
7 lbs. when caught, and from its appearance it cer-
tainly could not have weighed less than five or six.
Perch of 2 and 3 lbs. are by no means uncommon,
and specimens of even 4 lbs. are probably less rare
than may be supposed. Such fish have been taken
in the Pen Ponds, Richmond Park ; and Pennant
records the capture of one in the Serpentine which
weighed 8 lbs. Donovan speaks of a Perch of
5 lbs., caught in Bala Lake. One of 6 lbs. was
taken by Mr. Hunt, of Brades, Staffordshire, from
the Birmingham Canal ; and two fish of 8 lbs. each

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 89

are stated to have been caught, the one in the
Wikshire Avon, and the other in Dagenham
Reach, Essex. One is recorded by Izaak Wakon
as having been taken by a friend, which measured
two feet in length ; and in the " Sure Angler's
Guide," the author says that he saw the figure of
a Perch drawn in pencil on the door of a house
near Oxford, which was twenty-nine inches long,
and he was informed that it was the outline of a
living fish.

It is not probable, however, that either of these
sizes represents the maximum attainable by the
Perch under favourable circumstances, even in
British waters ; and it probably reaches a much
ereater weight in Scandinavia and other northern
countries. The Danube breeds enormous Perch ;
and in the Church of Lulea, Lapland, the head of
one is preserved which is nearly a foot long — •
Solving the entire length of the fish at somewhere
about 3-^ feet.

After the Pike, the Perch is the most absolutely
fearless of our sporting fish, often following a bait
up to the very surface of the water or side of the
boat, when with jaws open and spines erect he
presents a really splendid appearance. He will
often remain thus for several instants bristling like
a porcupine, as if threatening reprisals on those
who have baulked him of his prey — retiring at
length in sullen wrath with his face still turned
towards his assailants.

90 THE SPORTING FISH

How far the spines of the Perch protect him
from the assauks of other fish — especially of the
Pike — is not quite certain. In many fishings both
in England and Scotland small Perch are consi-
dered the favourite baits for the Pike, which does
not seem to be at all deterred by their spiky ap-
pearance. Moreover, as the Pike always swallows
his prey head-foremost, whilst the spines of the
Perch are capable only of projecting backwards —
shutting down like the props of an umbrella upon
pressure from in front — it would appear that they
ought rather to assist than impede the operation of
swallowing.

The favourite food of the Perch consists of min-
nows, of which he can devour an extraordinary
number ; but failing these, any small fry, worms
(especially brandlings), insects, frogs, caterpillars,
and grubs of all sorts are good baits.

The extent to which he will gorge himself with
minnows may be judged by the fact — within the
knowledge of most anglers — that when he has
filled his stomach so that he can positively swallow
no more, he will still endeavour to bite and, if pos-
sible, masticate others ; and it is by no means un-
common under these circumstances to hook and
capture a Perch with the tails of the minnows which
he has already partially swallowed, and been unable
to pouch, protruding from his gullet ! From this
it may be inferred that fish, like many other
animals — including man himself, in the first degree

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 91

— find a gratification in the exercise of their pre-
datory instincts even when the appetite of hunger
has been fully satiated.

Although having, it will thus be seen, the
bump of destructiveness very liberally developed,
Perch are by no means difiicult to tame : Mr. Jesse
succeeded, after a few days only, in inducing them
to feed from his hand. Bloch mentions having
watched them depositing their ova in a vessel kept
in his own room ; and I was informed by Mr.
Bartlett, the eminent and indefatigable Superin-
tendent of the Zoological Gardens in Regent's
Park, that the Perch in the aquarium there in-
crease their numbers by an annual shoal of young
fry which are hatched and reared under the eyes
of hundreds of visitors.

A comical anecdote turning upon this faculty
of ready acclimatization is related by the author of
" Fishes and Fishing." A country gentleman, in
order to add to the usual attractions of a Christmas
visit, offered a London friend of piscatorial ten-
dencies the temptation of a "day's fishing in his
private water." The sportsman arrived, with a
good assortment of rods, lines, &c., and was all-
impatient to be at his work. After lunch his host in-
troduced the visitor to " his water" — which proved
to be an ornamental basin, in width about equal
to the lencrth of one of the rods the angler had
brought with him. The chagrin and disappoint-
ment of the latter may be imagined ; but upon the

92 THE SPORTING FISH

assurance that there really were fish in the pond,
he put his tackle together and adjusted a bait. It
had hardly touched the water before he hooked
and landed a fine Perch ; another and another fol-
lowed, and by the time his friend came to summon
him to dinner he had thirty-five fish in his basket.
"Well," said his host, " I am glad you have had
such sport ; I caused three dozen to be put in the
day before yesterday." " Indeed ?" was the reply,
— "then I will go back and catch the thirty-sixth
after dinner."

Though attaining their greatest perfection in
clear, sharp streams. Perch thrive well on clayey
or sandy bottoms, preferring generally a water of
a moderate depth and current, and frequenting
holes, mill-dams, hollow banks, and, in summer,
the under-currents of weirs. In winter their fa-
vourite haunts are back-waters and eddies ; and at
this time of the year they feed best about the
middle of the day, more particularly if bright and
warm. They usually swim in large shoals. Their
spawning season is at the end of April or the be-
ginning of May ; and so prolific are they, that a
specimen weighing half a pound has been found to
contain 280,000 ova. The eggs are deposited in
strings which hang about the weeds and rocks, and
when seen through a bright sunlight present a
beautiful appearance almost resembling festoons
of pearls.

Of the Perch family only two fresh-water species

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 93

are known to exist in this country, the common
Perch, and the Ruffe or Pope ; the latter of Httle
interest either for sport or for the table.

The characteristics known to all the Percida are : — Fin-
rays partly spinous and partly flexible. Body oblong, and
covered with hard or rough scales. Bones of the gill-covers
variously armed at the edges with notches or spinous points.
Most of the species composing this family have the ventral fins
under the pectoral.

Principal Characteristics of tlic Perch. — The whole length of
the fish, — head, body, and tail-fin— being considered as i, the
length of the head alone, to the point of the gill-cover, is about
3A : depth of body at the deepest point as nearly as possible
equal to length of head ; nape of neck and shoulder rising
very abruptly, giving a general appearance of the fish being
rather " hog-backed ;" belly-line less convex. Fleshy portion
of tail very slender. Tail-fin rather small. Two back-fins, the
first supported by strong pointed bony rays fourteen in number ;
the second back-fin having sixteen soft rays, and commencing
very nearly over the anal fin : the commencement of the first
dorsal, pectoral, and ventral fins, very nearly in a line, slanting
slightly backwards towards the belly; and the pectoral-fin com-
mencing a very little more forward than the point of gill-cover.
Colour : muzzle dark brownish green ; irides, cheeks, and gill-
covers, a greenish bronze ; pectoral-fins nearly yellow of a
lightish tint ; pectoral, anal, and tail fins, brilliant scarlet ;
second back-fin greenish, with a slight tinge of scarlet or orange.
Back dark olive green, becoming nearly brown in large speci-
mens ; sides golden yellow marked with dark transverse bars of
a greenish colour : belly from muzzle to tail quite white. Scales
in lateral line about sixty-six. Lateral line convex.

THE COMMON CARP.'

H E family of Carps (Cyprinidcc) belongs
to the first Order of fishes, Malacop-
tcrygii, or those having almost all their
fin-rays soft and flexible, and the genus
Cyprimis, or true Carps {the first genus of this
family), are distinguished by — the body being
always covered with large scales ; a single long
back-fin ; the lips fleshy ; mouth small ; teeth in the
throat, but none in the jaws ; and three gill-rays.
To the family Cypriiiida: belong no less than
twenty-two species found by ichthyologists in our
fresh waters; including the Roach, Dace, Chub,
Barbel, and Bream, constituting some of the most
prominent of the so-called " coarse fish," regarded
as objects of interest from the sportsman's point of
view.

The common Carp is the typical fish, and there-
fore occupies first place in right of precedence
ichthyological. The specimen selected for illustra-
tion was taken from the Obelisk ponds in Windsor

' Cyprimis carplo. Cypriims, a Carp ; carpia, the Carp, Lat.

<J

Ph

o

o
o

W

H

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 95

Great Park, which, with the adjacent preserves,
have been for centuries famous for their Carp. I was
informed by Mr. Frank Buckland, to whose kind-
ness I was indebted for the opportunity of giving
a representation of this fish, that on the occasion
of its being captured, a series of five ponds near
Cumberland Lodge were allowed to be run dry
for the purpose of getting rid of the Jack. When
the lowest pond — the Obelisk — -was nearly empty
the nets were put in, and from a conversation with
Mr. Buckland on his return from Windsor I learnt
some interesting particulars demonstrated by the
result of the netting as to the growth-rate, &c., of
the Carp in this and the other waters in Windsor
Park. It was remarked as a singular circumstance
that nearly all the Carp taken from the Obelisk
pond were of a very similar weight, viz., from 4 lbs.
to 6 lbs., none of them being of an unusual size, as
was anticipated. Wheeler, Her Majesty's head
fisherman, informed Mr. Buckland that he knew
these Obelisk Carp to be fifty years old at least.
They had been twice removed within his memory
from the different ponds, the last time about thirty-
five years before from a pond near Cumberland
Lodge, when they weighed about 3 lbs. each.
Their subsequent growth-rate therefore could not
have averaged more than about an ounce a year.

It appears that some of the Windsor ponds are
very much better suited to the growth, that is to
the feeding, of Carp than others ; thus, for in-

96 THE SPORTING FISH

stance, Mr. Buckland was shown in the Royal
Stew two Carp, brother and sister to those in the
Obehsk pond, and of which the largest turned the
scale at \o\ lbs. — having thus attained a size
nearly double that of its less favourably situated
relatives. This fish I examined. It had the
appearance of being afflicted with an immense
tumour in its abdomen, which the fisherman gave
it as his opinion was caused by a detention of the
eggs — a by no means uncommon occurrence ac-
cording to his experience with very old Carp,
" which were always bad breeders, and frequently
retained their eggs for years." This opinion expe-
riment proved to be correct, as, on making a post
uiortcDi dissection, three different sets of eggs,
packed upon one another, were found, — those
nearest the vent being of a white lustrous colour,
and ready to be shed. They were of the usual
size of Carp eggs. The other two sets of ova
had, judging from their appearance, arrived almost
at perfection in former years, but had never been
shed. They Avere matted together inside the fish
in a solid mass, presenting the aspect called in
medical phraseology " Hepatization."

Although a slow-growing, the Carp is a very
long-lived fish — the longest-lived, probably, of any
fresh-water species — a hundred, a hundred and
fifty, even two hundred years having been claimed
as the term of its existence, when favourably si-
tuated. Admitting, however, that this last may

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 97

probably be an exaggeration, there is no doubt
that many of these fish introduced into the ponds at
Versailles, &c., during the reign of Louis the Four-
teenth (say 1 690) are either still living or were so but
a short time before the Revolution of 1830. Dr.
Smith, in his " Tour to the Continent," mentions
them, and observes that they had grown white
through atre. Valenciennes refers to others in the
Tuileries, which would also come when called by
their names ; and Buffon assures us that he had
seen, in the fosses of the Ponchartrain, Carp which
were known to be upwards of a century and a half
old.

A reviewer in the " Athenceum" of the 8th of
August, 1863, gives the following comical account
of the Fontainbleau Carp : —

"Visitors to Fontainbleau will doubtless remem-
ber the lake adjoining the palace and its large
Carp population, numbering many of the most
ancient of that family in Europe. To those who
have never been at Fontainbleau we may state
that the lake swarms with these fish, of all ages
and sizes, and that it is the custom of visitors to
feed them with bread ; but as ordinary bread would
disappear in a moment among the hungry shoal, a
plan has been devised to give the visitors more
amusement by using balls of bread, about the size
of a man's fist, baked to a biscuit-like hardness.
On casting one of these balls into the lake, it is
immediately surrounded by scores of Carp, hungry

H

98 THE SPORTING FISH

youngsters for the most part, which being appa-
rently aware that they cannot possibly devour the
food in its hard and unbroken condition, proceed
with wonderful unanimity to push it with their
snouts to the nearest part of the stone wall con-
fining the lake. Against this they continue butting
it violently, until at length the repeated blows, and
the softening effect of the water, cause the ball to
break ; when, just at the moment that it is in a fit
state to be eaten, some half dozen enormous Carp,
white with age, which have been watching the
proceedings with evident interest, shoulder away
the young workers, who retire with great precipi-
tation, while the tyrants of the lake gobble or
rather suck in the pabulum which has cost the
small carp so much trouble to render fit for their
eating. It is the old story of might against right,
and as we have often witnessed what we have de-
scribed, we have no doubt that old Carp are as wily
as ancient foxes."

This gentleman, it will be observed, confirms
Dr. Smith's statement as to the fact of Carp be-
coming gradually white from old age ; and it is a
curious fact that great age and exclusion from the
light produce apparently the same effects both on
fish and other animals — the skin or scales under-
going a sort of bleaching process, either from a
gradual drying up of the invigorating juices of the
body, or from the want of the sun's rays. In the
case of fish and reptiles whitened by exclusion

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 99

from the light, it is an ahnost universal rule that
the eyes are so much undeveloped as to produce
total blindness. The fish taken in the Mammoth
Caves of Kentucky are blind, and of a white co-
lourless hue, as also is a species of Crawfish found
in the same subterranean waters. The Proteus
anguiniis, inhabiting the caves of Illyria, exhibits
the same peculiarities.

Through the kindness of my friend, the late Sir
Emerson Tennent, I had on one occasion the op-
portunity of examining some newly discovered mud-
fish found under the surface of the paddy-fields of
Ceylon. The medium in which they exist is about
the consistency of pea-soup ; and their eyes are so
small as to be almost imperceptible. It may be
presumed, I think, that all these blind creatures
obtain their food principally or wholly by scent.

But to return. The bones in the head of the
Carp are very remarkable for their exquisite polish
and symmetry, being as hard and as white as ivory,
and resembling, indeed, a highly-finished marble
sculpture more than anything else.^ The arrange-
ment of the bones forming the jaws and mouth is
also very complete and beautiful. According to
Blumenbach, Carp have the largest brain, in pro-
portion to their size, of any fresh-water fish : they
are certainly the most difficult to take by bait, and

1 There is — or was before the migration to South Kensington
— a skeleton of an enormous Carp in the British Museum, well
worth inspection.

100 THE SPORTING FISH

are credited on occasions with an inconvenient
habit of cuttinsf throug^h the anfjler's line with the
sharp spine of their dorsal fin. It also seems to be
a well-established fact that when they see a net
approaching they will bury their noses in the mud
of the bottom and refuse to move, even though the
leads of the net sweep heavily over them. By this
means they escape. If, however, they should
happen to be dragged up by the net, they will fre-
quently endeavour, like the grey Mullet, to spring
over the top : in short, there is no doubt that the
Carp quite merits his sobriquet of the " water-fox."

The following method of Carp-fishing in stag-
nant waters, which I recommended in the "Angler-
Naturalist," appears, so far as my experience goes,
to be more successful than any other. " Let the
line be entirely of fine, round gut — clouded if pos-
sible— with a very light quill float, and one or two
small shot about a foot from the hook. Plumb the
depth accurately; and arrange the distance between
the float and the shot so that the shot may exactly
rest 071 the bottom, weighing down the point of the
float a little out of the horizontal, and letting the
foot of gut below the shot and the bait lie on the
ground. Fix the rod in the bank, and keep per-
fectly quiet. When a bite is perceived, do not
strike, until the float begins to move away."

It constantly happens, however, that the Carp,
especially if large and wary, will not be taken
either by this or by any other mode of fishing.

OF GREAT BRITAIN. loi

I was once witness to a very curious occurrence,
where a Carp — usually such a timid and dainty
feeder — took in succession two hooks baited with
worms, on two different lines, and was itself taken
simultaneously by both, one hook being fastened
on each side of its mouth. The distance between
the two rods and baits at the time the fish took the
latter was not less than several yards, and the
floats disappeared almost at the same moment,
both anglers striking together, and the Carp being
lifted out between them. The boys to whom this
singular accident happened were brothers, and I
am sorry to add that, consanguinity notwithstand-
ing, the dispute as to the ownership of the Carp
waxed so warm as to render a final appeal to arms
— or rather to fists — necessary.

Although, as observed, Carp are the most shy
and difficult of capture of any of our fresh-water
species, they are one of the easiest to tame. They
feed readily in stews, and will come for their meals,
according to some authors, at the ringing of a bell
or at the sound of their keeper's voice. In the
waters of some public gardens near Rotterdam,
where the Carp attain to a great size, they are in
the habit of following visitors about in expectation
of food ; and one immense fellow, with a side as
broad as a flitch of bacon, and an appetite that
seemed insatiable, actually pursued me for nearly
a hundred yards along the side of the bank, until,
my stock of bread being exhausted, I was fain to

102 THE SPORTING FISH

try experiments with some paper pellets, when he
sailed off in magrnificent distrust. This fish must
have weighed at least 15 lbs.

It is not to be supposed, however, from these
instances, that Carp are the only fish which are
capable of being tamed, or are sensible to the in-
fluence of external sounds. At .Sir J. Bowyer's,
near Uxbridge, Mr. Bradley tells us, there is, or
was, a pond full of tame Pike, which could be
called together at pleasure. Mr. Salter was ac-
quainted with a person who for several years kept,
in a water-butt, a Perch, which came to the sur-
face for its food whenever his owner tapped on the
side of the butt. According to yElian, the Chad
was lured to its destruction by the sound of cas-
tanets. Professor Rennie states, that in Germany,
this fish is still taken by nets hung with rows of
little bells arranged so as to chime in harmony ;
and, without going back to the story of Amphion
and the Dolphins, or the old Scottish harper, who,
according to the ballad, "harped a fish out o' the
sa't water," we may find hundreds of well-authen-
ticated anecdotes pointing to the conclusion that at
any rate some species of fish have a very consider-
able perception of some sorts of external sounds.

Another peculiarity of the Carp is its power of
sustaining life out of water — indeed, its "hard-
dying " qualities must have come under the notice
of most fishermen at some time or other. I have
more than once taken a basket of Carp a consi-

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 103

derable journey in the broiling heat of a July or
August day with no more moisture than could be
obtained from a damp cloth, and yet they have
been alive, and even lively, at the end of it. The
idiosyncracy is so well known and acted upon that
in Holland it is no uncommon practice to fatten
Carp for the table by hanging them in a cellar in a
net full of moss kept damp, and feeding them, like
babies, on bread and milk poked into their mouths
with a spoon.

The capacity of enduring this sort of amphibious
existence is no doubt due to the construction of
the fish's breathing apparatus, which is peculiar.
The supports of the gill-leaves are bony ; whilst in
the Perch they are formed partly of bone and
partly of cartilage, and in the Bream, Barbel, and
Pike wholly oi cartilage. The consequence is that
instead of becoming stuck together when deprived
of the moisture of the water, these gill-leaves,
which represent the lungs of the fish, can be sepa-
rated by the action of the muscles so as to absorb
the oxygen from the air — in other words to breathe.
In the Carp also the gill-openings, which in the
Salmon and Trout are equal in extent to the length
of the gill-arches, are partially closed by a mem-
brane, thus enabling them to retain moisture.

I have seen it stated, though I cannot say that I
have met with an instance within my own know-
ledge— that upon the drying up or exhaustion of a
pond the Car[) that were in it will bury themselves

104 THE SPORTING FISH

deep down below the surface of the mud, and
reappear Hke the mud-fish of the East in undi-
minished numbers upon the first return of water.

During the winter months it is probable that
Carp retire almost wholly into the mud, or under
roots, hollows, and weeds, and at this time they
are hardly ever to be taken with a bait. In the
summer they frequently lie sucking in the weeds,
in a sort of lazy state, each suck making a very
distinct and unmistakable noise. It much re-
sembles the sound made by a pig, — to which
animal, indeed, a big Carp has always appeared to
me to bear a striking likeness both in face and
character. When not sucking or basking, the Carp
usually swims about in shoals near the surface of
the water, returning to the bottom to feed. Early
in the morning and late in the evening are the best
times for Carp fishing.

Carp spawn toward the end of May or beginning
of June, according to the temperature of the water
and the season ; they are supposed to continue
spawning occasionally for four or five months, and
always for a longer period than most other fish.
The ova — which in a specimen weighing 9 lbs.,
were found by Block to number 600,000 — are de-
posited upon weeds, amongst which the female is
followed by two or three males, thus securing the
impregnation of a large proportion of the eggs.

Charadcristics common to all the Corp Family. — Fin-mys
almost entirely flexible. Ventral fins suspended to the abdo-

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 105

men behind the pectorals, without being attached to the bones
of the shoulder. Mouth shallow ; lips commonly fleshy ; jaws
feeble, generally without teeth. Powerful teeth in the throat.
Only one back-fin. Body scaly. Very few gill-rays.

Besides the Common Carp, and cyprinus aurattis
(the ordinary gold and silver fish of the aquaria,)
there is another — though far from common —
species belonging to the genus of the true Carps,
called the Prussian orGibel Carp {cyprinus gibelid),
a much rarer fish than the common Carp, and pro-
bably by anglers very often confounded with it. .

From the common Carp, however, it is entirely
distinct, the following being the most obvious
structural differences : — The whole general appear-
ance of the fish is much more thick and chublike
than the common Carp, resembling in fact the
Rudd in external form more than any other fish, —
the common Carp much more nearly ajaproaching
that of the Barbel.

In the common Carp the length of the head is
almost invariably greater than the depth of the
body in the deepest part, whilst in the Prussian
Carp it is always very much less.

The scales on the Prussian Carp are larger, the
number in the lateral line being about -^^^ — and in
common Carp about 38.

The mark, however, by which the angler may
always at once distinguish the two fish on the most
cursory examination is the mouth. This in the
common Carp has two little barbels or beards

io6 THE SPORTING FISH

at each corner, whilst in the mouth of the Prussian
Carp no beards whatever exist.

There are a good many other minor points of
difference which will be observed on a careful
comparison of the fish, but the above marks are
easily verified, and are amply sufficient for all pur-
poses of distinction.

Some ichthyologists, including Yarrell, make a
third species of British Carp, which they name the
Crucian Carp {cyprhms carassms) ; but as this dis-
tinction is founded on one or two specimens only,
said to have been caught in the Thames, I am of
opinion that there is not sufficient ground for the
distinction, which adds a needless complication in
the way of the fisherman and student of ichthy-
ology.

The Prussian Carp usually spawns about April
or May, or occasionally later, and in habits, food,
&c., has many points in common with the ordinary
Carp, from which it differs, however, in that it
rarely exceeds a couple of pounds in weight.

The Prussian Carp is found in several counties
of England, and probably exists in many others
where it has not hitherto been noticed. It is par-
ticularly common in the neighbourhood of the
Thames. It seldom bites freely, and consequently
but little success attends the angler. In habits and
food the Prussian Carp closely resembles the pre-
ceding species ; and it is so tenacious of life, that it

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 107

has been known to survive after having been kept
out of the water thirty hours.

The principal characteristics of a Prussian Carp
that I examined were : —

The total length of the fish, head, body and tail fin inclusive
being as 4, the length of the head alone is as i. Depth of body
at deepest part i-5th more than length of head : back fin very
long ; tail fin forked but not quite so much so as in the common
Carp. Mouth small, toothless : back and belly line both con-
vex. Colour : sides and cheeks pale straw colour, rather more
silvery than golden — ventral and pectoral fins a light pinkish
tint. Tail and dorsal fins the same, only greener. Irides silvery
and green.

I did not count the fin-rays which, however,
Yarrell gives as.

Fin-rays : D. 4 | 16 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 3 | 6 : C. 19.

^^^^^F

^^P

^^^B

^^^^

^^m

^^^^mi

THE TENCH/

LTHOUGH not of the same genus, yet
belonging notably to the same family, the
Tench follows the Carp with the same
sort of propriety as that which almost
invariably links together the names of the Salmon
and Trout in our fishing books and manuals of
ichthyology. The fish are constantly found in the
same localities — indeed, I scarcely know a pond
containing the Tench which does not also contain
one or other variety of the Carp, — they are both
equally long-lived out of water, their habits and
food are the same — the modes of fishing for them
are the same, and the bait most successfully used
for catching the one will very frequently bring the
other floundering up out of the mud.

And yet, strange to say, in not a few points it
would be difficult to find two fish more dissimilar.
The Carp, for instance, has the largest scaling of
any of the fish composing the grouja of which it is
the type, whilst the scales of the Tench are

' Ti/iai Vulgaris. Tinea, the Tench, vulgaris, common, Lat.

tq

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 109

amongst the smallest, if not actually the most
minute of the whole family ; the general hue of the
Carp is golden and bronze, that of the Tench deep
olive ereen ; and whilst the former makes one of
the very best Pike-baits I am acquainted with,
the latter, it is affirmed, exerts upon that usually
omnivorous gourmand an effect absolutely repel-
lent. Of the truth of this, as a fact, there seems to
be no reason to doubt, though we are not, of
course, bound to put implicit faith in the various
theories by which it has at different times been
explained. Of these the most universally accepted
amongst ancient, and even by some modern
authors appears to be that the Tench is in some
way the physician of the water, possessing in the
thick slime with which he is covered, a natural
balsam for the cure of himself and others. Ron-
deletius even says that he saw a great recovery
effected upon a sick man by the application of a
Tench to his feet.

Without, however, trenching so nearly on the
domain of the miraculous, there certainly are many
accounts on record of the restoration of sick and
wounded yfV^ by contact with the Tench. The fol-
lowing, mentioned by Mr. Wright, in his book on
" Fishes and Fishing," is one out of a hundred
of such alleged instances that might be quoted : —

" A gentleman, who was unfortunately unable to
leave the house for some time through an accident.

no THE SPORTING FISH

amused himself by making small artificial flies,
which he did very neady. He kept some minnows,
and a Tench about 2\ inches long, in a very large
wide-mouthed botde; all the minnows had died
except one ; my friend was just finishing a fly as I
went into his room, and he held it upon the surface
of the water in the bottle as he was often in the
habit of doing ; the minnow darted at it so rapidly,
that he could not withdraw the fly in time to pre-
vent the hook from pricking the minnow ; the little
fish descended three-parts of the way down the
bottle, poised himself for a moment, with his nose
pointing downwards, then swiftly went the re-
mainder of the way, rubbed his nose during a few
seconds against the side of the Tench, and again
swam about as lively as before. We both joined
in the opinion that it is really no fable as to the
Tench being the yEsculapius of fish ; for here was
an example before our eyes of a fish being wounded,
and immediately instinct directing him to seek a
remedy."

Camden in his " Britannica," also alludes to this
circumstance. " I have seen," he says, "the bellies
of Pikes which have been rent open, have their
gaping wounds presently closed by the touch of
the Tench, and by his glutinous slime perfectly
healed up."

In fact for the Tench has been literally claimed
the royal gift of healing by touch.

OF GREAT BRITAIN. iii

Equally numerous, if not perhaps more credible,
are the testimonies to the fact that the Pike, des-
tructive and insatiable to all else, has yet that
" grace of courtesy " left in him that he spares to
molest his physician, even when most pressed by
hunger ; perhaps upon the same principle as that
■which guides his prototype, the shark, in sparing
the useful and friendly little pilot fish. Amongst
other angling authorities, Oppian, Walton, Hollin-
shed, Bowlker, Salter, Williamson, Hofland, and
Fitzgibbon, all acknowledge to more or less faith
in the truth of the assertion. Salter says, " I have
known several trimmers to be laid at night, baited
with live fish. Roach, Dace, Bleak, and Tench,
each about 6 or seven inches long ; and when
those trimmers were examined in the morning, both
eels and Jack have been taken by hooks baited
with any other fish than Tench, which I found
as lively as when put into the water the preceding
nieht, without ever having been disturbed. This
has invariably been the case during my experience ;
neither have I met with one solitary instance to the
contrary related by any of my acquaintance, who
have had numerous opportunities of noticing the
singular circumstance of the perfect freedom from
death or wounds which the Tench enjoys over
every other inhabitant of the liquid element, arising
from continual conflicts with each other."

I have quoted some portion of the preceding
from the "Angler-Naturalist," in which I also

112 THE SPORTING FISH

mentioned that to try the experiment practically,
I procured some small Tench, and fished with
them as live-baits for a whole day in some excel-
lent Pike water, but without getting a touch. In
the evening I put on a small Carp, and had a run
almost immediately. I also tried some Pike in a
stock-pond with the same Tench, but they would
not take them ; and though left in the pond all
niofht— one on a hook, and one attached to a fine
thread — both baits were alive in the morning, —
some Pike-teeth marks, however, being visible
upon the hooked fish.

These are facts which (having occurred within
my own knowledge) I can mention with certainty,
but at the same time without expressing any
opinion as to the truth or otherwise of the theories
by which the curious in ichthyology would propose
to explain them. The whole question would form
a very interesting and legitimate subject for expe-
riment to any one who might have leisure and
inclination to investigate it practically.

The notion of the Tench being the Pike's phy-
sician has been thus admirably versified : —

" The Pike, fell tyrant of the liquid plain,
With ravenous waste devours his fellow train :
Yet howsoe'er by raging famine pined.
The Tench he spares — a medicinal kind ;
For when, by wounds distrest and sore disease,
He courts the salutary fish for ease,
Close to his scales the kind physician glides.
And sweats a healing balsam from his sides."

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 113

A less poetical explanation of the Pike's abstinence
is given by Bingley, who suggests that, as the
Tench is so fond of mud as to be constantly at the
bottom of the water, where the Pike cannot find
him, the self-denial of the latter may be attributable
to less elevated causes. This prosaic theory, how-
ever, also requires confirmation,

As to the gastronomic qualities of the Tench
opinions differ, but in Holland and some other
parts of Europe it is a common dish at the dinner-
table and is thought both wholesome and nutritious.
Like the Eel, however, it would appear to be palat-
able in a precisely inverse ratio to the cleanliness of
its abode, improving in gustatory attractions as it
approaches more nearly in colour and diet the com-
position of its habitual mud. Thus, "Tench were
taken out of Munden Hall Fleet, Essex, which
was so thick with weeds that flue nets could hardly
be sunk through them, where the mud was intoler-
ably fetid and had dyed the fish of its own hue,
which was that of ink; yet no Tench could be
better grown or of a sweeter flavour." . . . " In a
clean pond at Leigh's Priory a quantity of Tench
were caught, about 3 lbs. weight each, of a colour
the most golden and beautiful ; but when dressed
and brought to table they smelt and tasted so
rankly that no one would eat them!" The re-
moval of the slime from the fish with warm water
before cooking is said to take away the muddy
taste.

114 THE SPORTING FISH

The best bait for the Tench is a well-scoured
brandling — the method of fishing being similar to
that adopted for Carp. Mr. R. B. Marston, in
a capital article on Tench-fishing, published in
the "Fishing Gazette" of 24th Oct., 1885, recom-
mends a second hook baited with brown-bread
paste, and placed about four inches above the hook
that is baited with the worm, so that one lies on
the bottom and the other just floats clear of it.

The specimen from which the illustration was
taken was a female fish weighing about 2 lbs., and
in very fine condition. Between the male and
female Tench a marked and curious difference
exists in regard to the ventral fins. In the
females these fins are of the ordinary size and
shape, but in the males they are much larger and
more muscular, and present almost the appearance
of a green concave shell, the concave side being
uppermost. From five to six pounds is about the
usual maximum weight, the largest recorded to
have been taken — a fish fifty years old at least —
weiofhine somewhat over eleven.

The Tench spawns with some variations about
the middle of June, or, according to Willoughby,
when wheat is in blossom.

The following were the principal measurements,
&c., of the fish represented in the engraving: —

The length of the head alone being considered as i, the total
length of the head, body and tail-fin not quite as 5. Depth of
body at deepest part i-5th more than length of head. All

OF GREAT B RITA I A'.

"5

the fins rounded at the extremities. Tail-fin not at all forked,
nearly square with the corners rounded off; mouth small, tooth-
less ; with one barbed at each corner. Scales very small.
Colours : head, sides, and cheeks golden green ; darker on the
back and fins ; orange yellow under the belly ; irides bright
orange red.

THE BARBEL.'

HE Barbel is distinguished from the
last genus {Cyprin^is) in having the
back- and anal-fins short instead of
elongated, with a strong bony ray in
the dorsal fin, — the mouth also being furnished
with four barbels or " beards." Exclusively a
river-fish, it is a native of many parts of England,
and abounds particularly in the Trent and the
Thames ; in the latter being so numerous, that
in the neighbourhood of Weybridge as much as
280 lbs. weight have been taken, according to
local tradition, by a single rod in one day. At
Temple Weir, near Marlow, I have also known
some extraordinary baskets to be made.

Although, In an angling point of view, less wary
and difficult of capture than the Carp, the Barbel,
both in its natural state and in confinement, is the
shyest and most untameable of all our freshwater
fish, except perhaps the Loach, exhibiting an ex-

' Biifbus vulgaris. "Bearded," from barba, a beard, Lat.;
vulgaris, common, Lat.

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■I'

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 117

traordinary degree of reserve and intolerance of
observation. In the spring, however, when the
fish seek the gravelly shallows to spawn, they
become very lively, and at this season may some-
times be seen tumblintr and rollino^ about with
their bodies half out of the water like a shoal of
porpoises. Amongst some specimens kept in a
vivarium, it was observed that, when they fancied
no one was looking, they would plunge and rub
themselves against the brickwork and otherwise
show considerable signs of playfulness.

The name " Barbel," as already noticed, is de-
rived from the barbs or beards at the corners of
the mouth. These are evidently designed to assist
the fish in feeling its way about in deep and, con-
sequently, more or less dark waters, which are its
natural habitats, and probably also for the purpose
of enabling it to detect the nature of the substances
with which it comes in contact. Of the species
provided with these barbs or beards — viz., the
Carp, Tench, Gudgeon, Loach, and Burbot — all
find their food principally, or wholly, on the
bottom ; and generally the fact of a fish being
" bearded " affords a correct index to its habits.

The Barbel is not much of a fish-eater, although
it has been known occasionally to take small fry
such as Minnows. Its ordinary food consists prin-
cipally of worms, slugs, grubs, &c. ; and in order
to procure these it routs about amongst the gravel
with its nose, in very much the same manner that

ii8 THE SPORTING FISH

a pig furrows a field with its snout. Lob-worms,
gentles, and greaves (here placed in what may pro-
bably be regarded as their order of merit), are the
usual baits for this fish. Three styles of fishing also,
one of which is peculiar to the Barbel, are commonly
employed for its capture, viz., ordinary float-fishing,
Nottingham-fishing, and " legering" — the last the
specialty of the art, and until late years almost
wholly confined to the Thames and its habitues.

The Barbel spawns in May or June, depositing
its ova, which in a large fish sometimes number
7,000 or 8, 000, in the gravelly or shingly beds of
the stream, where they are immediately covered
by the parent fishes. These eggs are vivified, in
warm weather, between the ninth and fifteenth day.

The spawners, so soon as they have recovered a
little strength, make their way into the swiftest
streams they can find, such as weirs, mill-tails, &c.,
to scour and brace themselves, beginning to get
into condition again in a few weeks, and being in
the best season for the angler until September and
October, when the frosty nights drive them from
the streams and shallows into the deeper waters.
Here they will be found until the spring ; and in
these quiet deeps and eddies they are to be caught,
if anywhere, during the winter months. At this
period, however, especially if the weather is very
cold, it is of comparatively little use to fish for
them, as they lie in a sort of semi-torpid condition
and refuse to move. So inanimate are they, that

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 119-

ihe fishermen, it is said, not unfrequently provide
themselves with hoop landing-nets which they
place near the Barbel and with a pole literally
push them in. Shoals sometimes collect under the
shelter of a sunken punt or other tidal obstruction,
lying one over the other as closely as they can
pack, and when thus congregated are often taken
by being "hooked foul." I have also been assured
that boys and others who are good swimmers will
dive into the water and take them with the hand
from under the banks and holes.

Barbel are numerous in many parts of the
world ; but their natural habitat appears to be
the warmer climates of Europe, and it is stated
by Cuvier that in localities favourable to them
they will grow to 10 feet long. They are plen-
tiful in the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, and
the Weser, in almost all the rivers flowing into
the Black Sea, and in the Volga, where they
attain the weight of 40 and 50 lbs. In this country
the usual weight does not exceed 10 lbs. ; but spe-
cimens have been occasionally taken as large as
15 lbs., and one is even chronicled as having been
caught in the River Lea which weighed 19 lbs.
Such a leviathan must have taxed both the patience
and the muscles of his captor — if indeed, he was
taken by rod and line — as the Barbel is exceedingly
strong and makes a powerful fight, showing as
much sport, though in a dogged sullen sort of way,
as almost any fish of the same size except perhaps

120 THE SPORTING FISH

the Salmon-Trout. It is, however, in small esteem
for the table, at which in this country it seldom
makes its appearance though frequently figuring
in French and German 7nemis. Indeed, I remem-
ber an English country-house on the banks of the
Thames where a dish of Barbel was a not uncom-
mon and much appreciated addition to the break-
fast-table. The fish was baked in a large open
pie-dish, with plenty of cloves and spices — whether
with or without vinegar or other sauce or gravy I
am not sure — but the jelly it formed when cold
was as firm as that of strong soup.

It has been observed that many species of the
Carp family have the power of emitting a guttural
sound under water, although the mechanism by
which this is effected is not understood — no air-
bubble escaping from the mouth of the fish at the
time — and amongst the species producing these
sounds the Barbel is particularly noted.

Besides those already mentioned, the principal characteris-
tics of the Barbel are — Mouth toothless ; throat-teeth in three
rows on each side, the rows numbering 2, 3, and 5 respectively.
Body elongated. Length of head compared with total length
of fish as I to 5 ; depth of body less than length of head.
Head elongated, wedge-shaped ; upper half of jaw much the
longer. Upper lip circular and fleshy. One pair of barbels at
the front of the nose, and a single one at the end of upper lip
on each side. Third ray of back-fin largest and strongest,
toothed on its hinder surface. Tail deeply forked at the end.
Colour (taken from a Thames fish weighing about 6 lbs.,
caught Sept., 1885, by Percy Mitchell, Esq.) : back, and back-
fin olive brown, with a bronzy tone ; head the same ; iridcs and

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 121

gill-covers just behind the eyes golden bronze ; upper part of
body, general effect greenish brown, becoming yellowish or
bronzy green on sides ; belly and throat silver white ; scales at
base browny bronze, at margins silvery whitish ; barbels at
corners of mouth, pale fleshy pink ; margins of all the fins
(except the back-fin), and including tail-fin, pale fleshy pink,
which extends — diminishing in intensity — nearly to the bases
or origins of the several fins.

THE COMMON OR CARP BREAM.'

E pass now to the Breams, which are
distinguished from the thick-skinned
Carps by their bright nacry scales.
Unhke the latter fish and the Barbel,
the Breams have no strong bony rays in the fins,
nor any beards at the corners of the mouth. The
body in all the species is deep and thin, or com-
pressed, the outlines above and below being very
convex : the base of the back-fin is short, and
placed further back than the ventral fin, whilst the
base of the anal fin is very long.

If we may credit the French proverb quoted by
Izaak Walton, that " He that hath Breams in his
pond is able to bid his friend welcome," these fish
would seem to be in considerable request on the
Continent as an edible. In England they are
seldom considered worth cooking, and the variety
known as the White Bream, or Bream-Flat, enjoys
a thoroughly evil reputation. Few fish, however,

' Abrainis hraiiia. Abramis, a Bream, Gr.; braiiia, the
Bream, Lat.

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BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 123

afford better sport with the rod and line than
the Carp Bream, as they are exceedingly strong
and vigorous, sometimes weighing as much as
7 and 8 lbs. — according to the author of the
"Angler's Instructor" even 17 lbs. — and are by
no means shy biters. Bream form also a useful
stock for ponds, or to feed Pike, being hardy and of
quick growth. The ova in one female have been
counted, and found to be 130,000.

There are two species of Breams commonly
found in this country — the Carp-Bream and the
White Bream or Bream-Flat. The Carp-Bream is
in its distribution an inhabitant of all the central
districts of Europe, as well as those northward to
St. Petersburg, Finland, and Scandinavia. Some
of the lakes of Ireland also produce it in large
quantities. In England it is found in many coun-
ties, appearing to thrive best in large open sheets
of water and in slow rivers where the stream occa-
sionally widens out into broads or deeps as in Nor-
folk. Of the rivers near the metropolis which
breed this fish perhaps the Mole and the Medway
are the most noted. Bream are also very nume-
rous in the Thames at Weybridge just below its
junction with the Wey, and in the latter river
higher up towards Wisley are occasionally caught
of very large size. I once examined a specimen
weighing upwards of 5 lbs. taken thence ; the scales
of this fish were rough and almost file-like, from a
small whitish tubercle which is a periodical produc-

124 THE SPORTING FISH

tion common to the species, as well as to several
others of the Carp family, at the spawning-time.

The smaller and inferior variety of this genus,
already mentioned, called the White Bream or
Bream-Flat (^<5rflwzV blicca), is frequently found in
the same waters as the Carp-Bream, and in habits
and food is nearly identical. The principal points
in which it differs in appearance from the Carp-
Bream are — (i) its colour, the prevailing tone of
which is rather silvery than yellow; (2) its size —
the Bream- Flat rarely exceeding i lb. in weight;
and (3) its teeth (throat-teeth), which are in two
rows on each side, numbering two and five re-
spectively,— those of the Carp-Bream being placed
in only one row on each side, numbering five. This
last point of difference is so obvious and easily
verified that no mistake can possibly occur. Other
minor distinctions will be observed on a close com-
parison of the fish. The White Bream is known to
exist in Cambridgeshire, Nottinghamshire, Norfolk,
and Dumfriesshire. I have taken it frequently in
the River Wey in Surrey, and it is probably locally
recognized in many other counties. It is also
common on the Continent and in Scandinavia.
It is best fished for with roach-tackle and a red
worm or gentle, and has this singular habit — by
which it may be constantly recognized, even before
it has been seen — of rising instead of descending
with the bait ; in consequence of which the float,
in lieu of being drawn under water, is laid flat upon

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 125

the surface. The fish takes a bait readily, but
often spits it out again from being too indolent to
swallow it. The Swedish fishermen call it the
Aetare, or the Glutton.

In the Bavarian dialect the term blicke is applied
to fishes that have a silvery glitter in the water
whence the specific name blicca, given to it on
account of the brightness of its colour as compared
with the Carp-Bream.

The principal characteristics of the White Bream

are —

Throat-teeth hooked, in two rows as above stated. Length
of head compared with that of body alone as i to 3. Head
larger, and fleshy portion of tail comparatively deeper, than in
the Carp-bream. Scales larger than those of the latter. Lateral
line not quite so low down, and with fewer scales, numbering
46 or 50. Relative position of fins very similar; fin-rays dif-
ferent in number. Colour, generally, of the sides bluish white,
without any of the golden-yellow lustre observable in the Carp-
Bream. Ventral and pectoral fins tinged with red.

Fin-rays : D. 10 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 23 : C. 19.

The Pomeranian Bream ' is another variety — so
scarce as to be rarely recognized, even when acci-
dentally met with. It may be readily distinguished,
however, both from the White and Carp- Bream by
the number of throat-teeth on each side, which are
in two rows numbering five and three respectively,
instead of, as in the former, in two rows of five
and two, and, as in the latter, in a single row of
five. It is also distinguished by the greater thick-

1 Ahainis Biiggcn/tagii.

126 THE SPORTING FISH

ness of its body, which is equal to half its depth,
whilst in the other two the same measurement is
only equal to one-third of the depth. The anal fin
is shorter and has a smaller number of rays than
that of the Bream-flat, which, again, presents a
similar proportion as contrasted with the Carp-
Bream. It is a very rare fish, being only known
to inhabit a few waters, amongst which may be
mentioned the River Lagan near Belfast, a pond
at Bottisham in Cambridgeshire, some water near
Wolverhampton, a few of the Broads of Norfolk,
and the preserves at Dagenham Reach, Essex,
well known to London anglers.

Length of head compared to total length of body as i to
5 ; depth at deepest part as i to 3. Head small and pointed.
Mouth small, toothless. Throat-teeth in two rows (numbering
five and three respectively) on each side. Number of scales in
lateral line 52. Vertebrae 41. Colour: over upper part of
head and back dark blackish blue, becoming lighter on the
upper part of sides ; lower part of sides and belly silvery white :
fins bluish brown, more or less tinged with brown.

Fin-rays: D. 12: P. 17: V. 19: A. 19: C. 19.

Of Carp-Bream large "takes" are occasionally
made by rod and line in the Weybridge Deep
before referred to, the method of angling found
most successful being the Nottingham system of
float-fishing alluded to under the notice of the
Barbel, the baits and ground-baits for which are
also those most killing in Bream-fishing. Bream
are gregarious, and their food consists of worms,

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 127

slugs, aquatic insects, and vegetable substances :
they spawn in May.

The specimen, a fine male, selected for repre-
sentation was taken by Mr. James Smithers, in
the Wey near Byfleet. Its colours were : belly
white ; sides, nearly up to the top of the back,
silvery gold with a slight greenish tinge above
the lateral line ; all the fins greenish black, pectoral
and ventral fins rather lighter ; irides silvery, with
a narrow bright yellow circle round the pupils ;
upper outline of fish almost black when held up
to the light and looked at sideways ; lateral line
very concave ; tail exceedingly forked, anal fin
very long.

Other CharaderistiLS of the common Bream. — Throat-teeth
cylindrical, with smooth crowns adapted for bruising, placed in
single rows, five teeth on each side. Mouth small, toothless,
without barbels. Scales placed in curves on the fore part of
the back, a naked place behind the ventrals. Length of head
to body as i to 3. Head small, nape of neck depressed. Body
deep and flat, very convex above and below, scales compara-
tively small. Scales of lateral line varying in number from 5 2
1058.

Fin-rays : D. 11 : P. 17 : V. 9 : A. 29 : C. 19.

THE ROACH.'

HE Roach — or, as its technical name
might be translated, the " Red Dace,"
from the scarlet colour of the fins — is
a great favourite with London fishers,
who at any time between August and May may
be seen perched, regardless of safety, upon pro-
jecting trees, bridge-buttresses, and, indeed, every
other accessible " coigne of vantage " between
Battersea Fields and Walton on Thames, or clus-
tering on the hundred-and-one lock-gates with
which the pretty river Lea is intersected almost
to its source. From these perilous eminences they
contemplate — and we may presume are also con-
templated by — the intelligent Lcuciscini, which,
notwithstanding, seldom fail to find their way in
greater or less numbers into the cockney's basket.
The Londoners, in fact, bear away the palm from
all competitors in Roach-fishing — a department of
angling, be it said, demanding a by no means
small amount of quickness of hand and eye. Mr.

' Leiicisiiis riitilics. Laidsciis, a Dace, Gr. ; riitilus, red, Lat.

<

o

(=1

I

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 129

Jesse, who has amusingly classified the several
orders and genera of Thames anglers, gives the
Roach and Dace fishers a very high rank for
skill and patience, and believes that they very
seldom attempt, or understand, any other branch
of the gentle craft ; whilst my friend Mr. Senior
elevates them still further in the angler's " prece-
dence," by devoting to their pursuits a charming
article entitled " Roach Fishing as a Fine Art." '

The largest shoals of Roach appear in the
Thames about the middle of May or early in
June, when they ascend from the lower parts of
the river to deposit their spawn in the higher
reaches, fighting their way up the strong rapids
with persistent energy, until they find a suitable
spot. This migration, it has been thought by
some authors, takes place from the sea ; but the
opinion seems to be erroneous as all experiments
have tended to prove that the roach will not live
in salt water. A similar annual exodus has been
noticed in Loch Lomond and elsewhere. The
Roach deposit their spawn on the surface of weeds
in shallow water, and whilst in the act of spawning
may sometimes be seen by hundreds together with
their back-fins out of water : a very few days
suffice to complete the reproductive process and
the fish then seek swift gravelly shallows on which
to scour themselves. These they soon quit, how-

^ " Badminton Library of Sport : " Longmans & Co.
K

130 THE SPORTING FISH

ever, for quieter currents, where they remain
several months, retiring about October into the
deeps and still waters for the winter, and always
selecting a gravelly or sandy bottom in preference
to a muddy one.

In the nature of its food the Roach resembles
the Dace, feeding, however, principally at night,
and by day swimmimg about in large shoals near
the bottom. The best general bait is the gentle ;
but pastes of various kinds, and sometimes small
red worms, are found equally killing.

Roach will not unfrequently take the artificial
fly, especially when first scouring themselves after
spawning, and I have caught some very fine
specimens with the gentle, thrown like the fly, and
also when dapping for Chub with the imitation
grasshopper. A ludicrous incident in connection
with the fly-catching propensities of the Roach is
mentioned in a recent work on An^jlino; : — A g^en-
tleman passing by the Round Pond on Clapham
Common, observed these fish rising freely at the
swarms of hovering cphefitercs ; and wishing to
try whether they would not be equally susceptible
to the artificial insect, sent back for a fly-rod, &c.,
and a small fly. The Roach, however, in this
instance refused to be enticed ; but a fine New-
foundland dog which was swimming about, snap-
ping impotently at the gnats and midges, perceived
the apparently drowning insect, and dashed at it
— " taking the death " with a plunge like a heavy

OF GREAT BRITAIN. i-^x

Salmon, and being fairly hooked in the jaws.
Away went the astonished dog towards the oppo-
site shore— away went the Hne — and away went
the equally astonished angler himself, who, anxious
to save his tackle, and being withal of somewhat
pursy and plethoric habit, was obliged to make
desperate efforts to keep up with his novel dcHciiii.
Finding himself thus chased by what must have
appeared to him to be a man brandishing a huge
whip, the dog made for home as fast as his legs
could carry him, followed by the shouts of the
spectators, and also by his unwilling captor, who,
despite his obesity, gallantly maintained the race,
springing over " bank, bush, and scaur," and steer-
ing his prisoner safely through opposing furze-
brakes, until he landed him at his master's domicile.

It once happened to me to hook a half-grown
wild duck, or " flapper," in a somewhat similar
manner in Loch Lochy, except that in this in-
stance the cast, which was made with a spinning
bait, was intentional. The duck, " hooked-foul "
as it was in the act of diving, continued submerged
until netted at the side of the boat. The author
of the " Angler's Rambles " mentions an anecdote
of a hare being thus taken with a trout-fly as she
was attempting to swim a river. The fly, adroitly
cast, stuck into the fur of her back, and, as her
captor remarked, landed her "comfortably."

Curious instances are related of birds and other
animals accidently swallowing fish-hooks. Within

132 THE SPORTING FISH

my knowledge both waterhens and cats have been
caueht in this manner. Ducks are the constant
victims of their incautious rapacity, and barn-door
fowls have not unfrequently been tempted to de-
struction by the allurements of a baited minnow
or seductive " green drake." An instance of the
latter is mentioned by Mr. Wright : — A gentleman
fishing with May-flies in the river Wye went into
an inn on the road-side, leaving his rod in the
portico, where a fine white cock took a fancy to
the fly, and became hooked in the soft part of the
beak. Feeling the hook the intruder prepared to
beat a hasty retreat and in so doing pulled down
the rod, with which he was running away in great
alarm ; but the angler, hearing the noise, sallied
forth, gave chase, and regained his departing
paraphernalia, when the cock mounted into the air,
and was with some difficulty brought down and
secured.

The Roach spawns about the end of May or
the beginning of June, when the scales become
rough to the touch. The largest specimen that I
am aware of having been taken is that mentioned
by Pennant, which weighed 5 lbs.

There is another species of the gcmis leuciscus,
closely allied to the Roach — so closely, indeed,
that it has by some authors been supposed to be a
hybrid between that fish and the Bream or Carp —
viz., the Rudd or Red-Eye, leuciscus erythroph-

^

<\

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 133

thalmus. It is a pond rather than a river fish,
thriving best in broad shallow meres and lagoons,
like Slapton Ley, in North Devon, and several of
the " Broads," as they are called, of Norfolk.
Under such favourable conditions Rudd multiply in
an extraordinary manner, feeding perhaps princi-
pally on some species of v;ater-vveed with which,
at Slapton Ley, I have constantly found their
stomachs to be filled. In this latter sheet of water
they grow to an occasional weight of over 3 lbs. —
specimens from i to 2 lbs. being very common.
When of this growth the Rudd affords capital
sport as they will readily take a gentle thrown in
the same way as an artificial fly, and sometimes
■ — though here I speak from report and not from
my own observation — the artificial fly itself.

When first caught, and in full season, I should
unhesitatingly give to the full-grown Rudd the
palm for brilliancy of colouring, if not for general
appearance, over all other " coarse " fresh-water
fish of the British Islands. The general hue of
the body is a reddish gold, varying according to
the light in which it is seen ; the eyes and fins are
tinted different shades of crimson, orange, and
green, whilst the cheeks and sides are of a rich
golden yellow. From this colouring it is needless
to say it derives its English name — " Rudd." The
specific name, crythrophtJialnms (from the Greek,
crytJu'os, red, and ophthalnius, the eye), has also a
similar origin.

134 THE SPORTING FISH

Some authors have imasined that this fish is a
hybrid between the Bream and the Roach, an
opinion which Walton also seems to have shared.
" There is," he says, " a kind of bastard small
Roach, that breeds in ponds, with a very forked
tail, and of a very small size, which some say is
bred by the Bream and right Roach ; and some
ponds are stored with these beyond belief; and
knowing men that know their difference call them
Rud: they differ from the true Roach as much
as does a herring from a pilchard. And these
bastard Roach are now scattered in many rivers,
but, I think, not in the Thames." Elsewhere he
adds, " Some say that Breams and Roaches mix
their eggs and milt together ; and so there is in
many places a bastard breed of Breams that never
come to be very large or good, but that are very
numerous."

The species referred to by Walton are, no
doubt, the true Rudd and the White Bream, or
Bream-flat, — the more common size of the former
being, as he describes, exceedingly small, and the
latter seldom exceeding a pound in weight. The
researches of modern ichthyologists have, how-
ever, thrown great doubts upon the existence of
any constantly recurring hybrids amongst fish, and
there can be no doubt that in the instances referred
to the three species are distinct. Without going
into the general question or giving all the reasons
on which this conclusion is based, it may be men-

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 135

tioned that the Rudd is constantly found in waters
in which no Bream exist, and that the Bream-flat
has been recognized only in a comparatively few
rivers, whilst in hundreds Roach and Bream co-
exist plentifully together, without either Rudd or
Bream-flats.

The Rudd is the " Shallow " of Cambridgeshire,
the " Roud " of Norfolk, and the " Roach " (that is
the fish commonly so-called) of Ireland.

It spawns in April or early in May, breeding,
as I have observed, very freely in water the con-
ditions of which are suitable, and owing to its
being remarkably prolific making a capital stock
for the feeding of Pike and Perch. As a live-bait
for the former it is particularly worth notice, its
glittering tints and the scarlet colour of its fins
giving it a bright and highly attractive appearance
in the water. It is also remarkably tenacious of
life. In its habits and general mode of feeding the
Rudd resembles its congener, the Roach. The most
remarkable differences between the two species (I
write with the fish before me) are as follows ; —

In two specimens of the same length : The
body of the Rudd is a good deal flatter and deeper
than that of the Roach ; and the head is much
shorter and more " chubby," being in fact little
more than |ths of the length of that of the Roach.
The dorsal-fin of the Roach commences as nearly
as possible over the ventral fins, whilst in the
Rudd it is placed considerably further back. In

136 THE SPORTING FISH

colour the general appearance of the Rudd is
golden, and that of the Roach silvery.

The most obvious mark, however, and that by
which the Rudd can be both easily and certainly
distinguished from the Roach, is the relative posi-
tion of the back fin — above described — as this
never varies and can be seen at a glance ; indeed,
so marked is it that upon this structural difference
ichthyologists have placed the two fish in different
sections of the same genus.

Although the external fonn of the Rudd is
perhaps almost as much like that of the Bream
as of the Roach, there is, in consequence of its
scarlet fins and generally " Roach-like " appear-
ance, no other fish with which it can well be
confused, even by the least initiated, and it is,
therefore, unnecessary to enter into a comparison
of its characteristics with those of any other
species.

The full measurements and colouring of the two
fish are as follows : —

The Rudd. — Length of head not quite |th of total length
(including head, body, and tail-fin to the extremity), — shape of
head " chubby." Depth of body at broadest part not quite
equal to twice the length of the head. Dorsal-fin commencing
a good deal further back than the ventrals (about as much
further back as ^ths of the length of the head). Base of
dorsal-fin, midway between point of nose and e.xtremity of tail-
fin. Scales large, number in Literal line about 42. Number
of scales in oblique line at widest part of body, 12. Teeth
pharyngeal. Colours : back and head olive green, then
bronze, merging into silvery golden on the sides, and beconiing

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 137

silver-white on the throat and belly ; gill-covers, bright orange
behind the eyes. The whole of the irides red-orange. Pec-
toral and dorsal fins pinky-olive, or olive, slightly tinged with
red towards the extremities ; ventral- and anal-fins, bright
crimson ; tail-fin, with a base of olive-green tinged with crimson,
the crimson getting more vivid towards margin, and top and
bottom fin-ray. The whole appearance of the fish golden as
distinguished from the silvery appearance of the Roach. [The
specimen from which the above colouring was taken was a
Slapton Ley fish weighing about i^ lbs., caught by VV. G. F.
Whittingstall, Esq., October, 1885.]

The Roach. — Length of head, ith of total length (including
head, body, and tail-fin to the extremity). Muzzle rather
sharp. Nape of neck rising abruptly. Depth of body at
broadest part only equal to i more than the length of the head,
and equal to ^ of the entire length of the fish, head and tail-
fin included. Dorsal-fin commencing exactly over commence-
ment of pectoral-fin ; ist ray midway between point of nose
and end of fleshy part of tail. Scales in lateral line, 43 ; in
oblique line at widest part of body, 1 2. Teeth pharyngeal (in
the throat). Colours : back, dull olive, or brownish-green ;
cheeks and sides silvery, with a patch of orange on each cheek
and just over the eye ; belly, white ; irides, orange-red. Ventral-
and anal-fins bright crimson, ventrals brightest. Pectoral-fins
paler crimson, mixed with a Httle orange and green ; back-fin and
tail-fin darker tint of crimson, mixed with a good deal of green.
[This is the full colouring of a Thames Roach of about |
lbs. weight, taken at the end of October or beginning of
November last at Marlow. A slight tinge of gold, perceptible
all over the head and gill-covers, increases as the fish gets
older, the sides also become less silvery.]

THE DACE' AND THE CHUB.^

HE Dace, leucisais vulgaris, or common
Dace, is the typical fish of the genus
lc7iciscus, which contains in addition the
Chub, the Roach, the Rudd, the Bleak,
the Minnow, and the Graining, the last-named
fish being so exceedingly rare as to possess little
interest, except from the naturalist's point of view.
The Dace on the contrary is constantly met with
and from its game qualities when hooked is well
worthy of the fisherman's notice. It is a bright
graceful fish, glancing about in the clear quiet
streams with which the southern counties of Eng-
land especially abound, and which are often barren
of Trout or Salmon. Moreover it is in full season
in October, November, December, and January,
when the Trout are spawning or preparing for the
process, and thus a red-letter day's sport is often
to be obtained, which would otherwise have had

"^ Lcuciscus vulgaris. Leuciscus, Gr. for Dace ; tlie diminutive
of /ciikos, white ; vulgaris, common, Lat.

- Lcuciscus cephalus. Lcuciscus, a Dace, ccphalc, the head, Gr.

a,

^

v^

n

X

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. 139

to be left blank in the angler's diary. As a live-
bait for Pike also it is especially worthy of notice,
its scaling being brilliant, so as to be easily seen
in thick water, and its entire appearance glittering
and attractive.

This " silveryness," combined with its compara-
tively rounded or cylindrical conformation of body
renders it a matter of ease to distinguish it at a
glance from its congeners, the Roach, Rudd, and
Bleak, which are all flattened at the sides, and also
from the other species of the Carp family in which
the colouring is either golden or bronze, or darker
as in the Barbel or Tench. There is, however,
one allied species, and, so to say, ' next door
neighbour,' from which the non-naturalist is often
easily perplexed to distinguish the Dace. When
the Chub is not full grown its resemblance to the
Dace is so strong that I have often known ex-
perienced fishermen at fault in determining posi-
tively whether the fish which they had caught was a
large Dace or a small Chub. By bearing the
following rule in mind no fisherman need ever be
in doubt as to the fish he has in his basket : — The
hinder margin of the anal fin of the Chub is
convex, and of the Dace concave ; this fin in the
Dace is usually of a pale greenish white, with a
very slight tinge of red — in the Chub it is of a
brilliant pink colour.

In adult specimens, the size of the Chub is, of
course, generally a sufficient distinction without

I40 THE SPORTING FISH

referring to particular marks. The whole fish
moreover rapidly assumes a bronzed or golden
appearance in place of the silvery tinting which
the Dace retains in its original brilliancy to the last.

Between Dace and Chub, and any other fish of
the same genus no comparison, as I have observed,
can well arise, as all these latter (with one only
exception — the Minnow) are what might be termed
in one sense flatfish — i.e., narrow across the back
and compressed at the sides. The former, on the
contrary, are plump and generally round shaped, so
to speak, as to the body.

The Dace rises freely at the artificial fly, a
small red worm being generally considered the
best natural bait for it ; gentles, paste, caddis-
worms, &c. are, however, not unfrequently taken.
It spawns about June and is exclusively a river fish.

Of the Chub as a "sporting" fish less can
probably be said with truth than of its congener,
but it grows to a far greater size, and from its
being one of the comparatively few species of
coarse fish which will take the fly kindly is worthy
of more consideration from the fisherman's point
of view than has often been bestowed upon it.
As its specific name — the "headed dace" — implies,
it is in its movements and appearance somewhat
slow and clumsy, though withal, a stately and
handsome fish when large and in good condition ;
yet I cannot but think that the fashion with old

t

Si

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 141

writers of painting the Chub as a sort of water
donkey must have either lacked sufficient founda-
tion, or else that the Chub of our ancestors were
somehow different from those with which we are
acquainted. At any rate most of those who have
tried it will ffrobably agree as to the difficulty of
filling a creel with the specimens produced by our
Metropolitan river. Possibly, however, the fish
of the Thames may be better educated than those
of less classical streams.

For one thing I can vouch, — that a fish of
quicker sight than the Chub does not swim in
English waters. The slio'htest jrleam of the rod —
the shadow of the swallow flitting over his quiet
corner — and down he goes like lead ; so quickly,
in fact, that the eye utterly fails to detect the precise
movement of his disappearance or ' order of going.'
Add to this extreme quickness of perception the
woody nature of the haunts in which he is to be
found and the fact that the successful Chub-fisher
must be prepared to cast his fly to within a few
inches of the boughs — often into a space the size
of his hat — under penalty of losing either his fish
or his tackle, and it will be conceded that the task
is no easy one. In fact in this school not a few of
the masters of the craft have passed their appren-
ticeship. To show how acute is the sight of the
Chub, a gentleman who is a most successful bait-
fisher on the Thames, and who recendy gained a
prize offered by the Piscatorial Society in con-

142 THE SPORTING FISH

sequence of the heavy baskets he made, informed
me that by covering his face and head with some
sort of mask he was enabled to look over the edge
of the bank unperceived, and could thus guide his
bait into the jaws of the fish he wished to catch
and watch them take it. If he attempted the same
process unmasked, the Chub were instantly
alarmed and ceased biting, or made oft altogether.

When once hooked, and the first powerful rush
for the boughs checked, the Chub seldom escapes,
having remarkably tough and gristly jaws, or being
as it is termed " leather mouthed."

In the earlier part of summer the fish is to
be found in the sharpest and swiftest streams, into
which it rushes to recover strength after the
spawning exhaustion of May. In June and July
it moves into deeper waters, especially below banks
hung with trees or bushes, and will be there found
until October or November when it takes up its
winter quarters, in quiet swims, under willow beds,
amongst roots, by sunken piles, or in any other
cover affordintr (rood shelter.

The chocolate, almost black, tint of back and
tail of the Chub are very conspicuous in the water,
where indeed it often causes it to be distinguished
from the dace and other fish even before it has
taken the fly or bait. The lips are also peculiar in
colour, being so white as (when opened) to be
easily perceived at the surface, even at the distance
of 10 or 15 yards.

OF GREAT BRITAIN. 143

The Chub is tolerably equally distributed
throughout most parts of the United Kingdom.
It is the Penci or Cochgangcn of Wales, and the
Skclly of Scotland and of the Cumberland lakes,
though by no means to be confounded with the
Ulswater Schelly or Givyniad. The Chevin is also
another local name for the Chub.

Cliaraderistics of the Dace. — The whole length of the fish,
body, head, and tail-fin being considered as 5, the length of the
head alone is about as i ; depth of body about the same as
length of head. Back-fin commencing half way between point
of nose, and eud of fleshy portion of tail. Tail-fin small and a
good deal forked. Scales smaller than those of Chub, 50 in
lateral line. Colour : back dark olive, or brownish green,
becoming rapidly silver on the side ; belly white ; cheeks gill-
covers and eyes silvery with a touch of bronze ; pectoral and
ventral-fins pale green and pink ; anal-fin greenish white with a
slight tinge of red ; back-fin and tail-fin same colour as back.

Characteristics of the Chub. — The whole length of the fish,
body, head and tail-fin being considered as 5, the length of the
head alone is a little more than as i ; depth of body a little
greater than length of head, which is rather blunt at the muzzle.
Back-fin commencing half-way between point of nose and
extremity of tail-fin, and rather nearer the tail. Tail-fin large
and somewhat forked. Scales very large; 44 or 45 in the lateral
line. Colour of a Thames Chub about 2 lbs. weight taken in
October : Back and back of head brown. Tail-fin olive-brown
with darker brown margin ; back-fin olive-brown all over ;
pectorals bronzy olive-green ; ventral- and anal-fins brilliant
reddish-pink. Cheeks and irides golden greeny-bronze ; belly
silvery white, getting more golden on sides, and then golden-
bronze towards the back. Margin of each scale being darker
than the rest. [The sides are more silvery when the fish is
young, becoming bronzed or golden as it attains maturity ;
the back-fin and tail-fin are also greener when young.]

THE BLEAK.'

SHE last of the laicischiior "Dace Genus"
which may be considered entitled to
mention amongst British sporting fish,
is the Bleak, leiiciscus albicrnus, — a deri-
vative from the Latin albtis, white, — -the "White
Dace."

The Bleak is so common throughout England
and in most rivers producing Roach and Dace,
that a detailed description of its characteristics
would be superfluous —

" Quis non et virides vulgi solatia Tineas
Norit, et Aleurnus praedam puerilibus hamis?"

It may be pointed out briefly, however, that it is
the only one of our freshwater fish which is in
shape narrow as well as flat. Rudd, Roach, and
Bream are all more or less flattened or compressed
at the sides, as pointed out, but they are also
broad, i.e., deep — from the back to the belly, and

' Latcisciis albunnis. Lmciscus, a Dace, Gr. ; alluis, white,
Lat.

<!

to

<

—1

m
w

BRITISH SPORTING FISH. t4S

in this particular show a striking contrast to the
Bleak, which is almost sprat-like in appearance.

The term Bleak, having reference to its shining
white scales, is taken from a northern word signi-
fying to bleach or whiten, blik (Danish), blick,
(Swedish and German), " glance," " glimmer."
Indeed, this brilliant scalure appeared, some years
ago, not unlikely to lead to its total destruc-
tion. A silvery pigment is found on the under
surface of the scales, from which they derive their
metallic lustre ; and this colouring matter was
universally used in the bead trade for imparting a
pearly tint to their wares.

So great was at one time the demand, when the
fashion of wearing imitation pearls was at its
height, that the price of a quart measure of scales
varied from one guinea to five. At one factory
alone, in Paris, 10,000 pearls were issued per
week ; and when it is considered that each pound
of scales cost the lives of 4,000 fish, and that this
pound only produced four ounces of pigment, some
estimate of the destruction effected amongst the
Bleak may be formed. Roach and Dace, and
some other fishes also furnished a colouring" sub-
stance, though of inferior quality, the best of all
being procured from the Whitebait.

The Bleak swims usually in large sculls or
shoals, and spawns in May. In length it seldom
exceeds six or seven inches, and is exclusively, so
far as my experience goes, a river fish.

L

146 BRITISH SPORTING FISH.

The following are the principal measurements,

&c., of a Thames Bleak, which formed the subject

of the illustration : —

The whole length of the fish, head, body and tail-fin, being
considered as 6, the length of the head alone is about as i ;
head small and delicate, and having the under jaw projecting.
Depth of body at shoulder somewhat greater than length of
head. Back-fin commencing nearly half-way between point of
nose and extremity of tail-fin, and much further hack than the
ventral fins (in the Dace the back-fin commences just over the
ventrals). Scales rather small and very easily detached; 52 in
lateral line. Sides compressed or flattened ; back very little
convex ; belly more convex. Colour : back, back-fin, and tail-
fin, bluish-green, — [in some waters darker, and in others almost
pea-green] — pectoral, and anal fins a lighter tint of the same ;
ventral-fins white ; sides and belly shining silvery white, with a
slight tint of green when held in particular lights. Eye golden
yellow with a green tinge.

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY

IMONGST the works of a i/?//?.^/ scien-
tific character to which an age that is
' nothiny if not utiHtarian ' has mvcn
birth, essays on Natural History more
or less popularized have received a markedly
favourable reception from the public. None of
these, however, — if I except a work of my own,
' The Angler-Naturalist,' published in 1863, and
now out of print, — have, so far as I am aware,
been specially devoted to Ichthyology, whilst for
the most part what has been written on the subject
has appeared in a detached or fragmentary form,- —
the information furnished being either too diffuse
and overlaid with technicalities to suit the require-
ments of the beginner, or too scanty and incom-
plete to be of any assistance to the more advanced
student.

Thus it results that the "science of fish" is still
far from being as widely understood and appre-
ciated, as, amongst a nation of sportsmen, might
have been naturally expected; and the young

148 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

angler, who would fain be also a naturalist, would
probably find himself not a little perplexed in at-
tempting to arrive, by the aid of existing manuals,
at any clear general conception of a subject which,
if stripped of needless difficulties and plainly set
before him, he would have easily mastered.

The value to the fisherman of even a moderate
acquaintance with ichthyology can hardly be exag-
gerated. Not only is it of the utmost practical
assistance, by the insight which it affords into the
habits, food, spawning-seasons, &c., of the several
fish — and consequently into what are likely to be
the best means of taking them — but it also doubles
the pleasure of success. The most insignificant
captures have to the naturalist an interest of their
own, apart from their mere weight in avoirdupois.
He is able to identify the various species he meets
with, many of which would otherwise pass unre-
cognized, to distinguish their sexes, ages, and
conditions, and to read with an intelligent eye the
mysteries of this beautiful page of Nature.

In spite of the advance of Fish-science, there
are still many moot points and disputed theories
connected with it which require elucidation, — pro-
bably also many new varieties of fish yet to be
discovered, — and it may often be within the power
of the angler-naturalist to observe and accurately
describe characteristics and peculiarities of the
highest interest to science.

Notwithstanding, however, these inducements.

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 149

it is astonishing how many there are, calling them-
selves sportsmen, who are content to remain all
their lives simply Killers of fish — of the habits,
idiosyncrasies, and often of the specific names of
which they are ignorant. This observation is
even in some degree applicable to old and expe-
rienced fishermen. " Names are the representatives
of things ; if a man does not know the names of
things in the water he may sit by it all his lifetime
without gaining much information for himself, and
absolutely none that he can convey to others.
The alphabet of science is its technicalities ; and
consequently the unlearned sitter by the water is in
an exactly similar position to the man who attempts
to study a book without having first acquired his
A B C."

Thus wrote a man who was both an enthusiastic
fisherman and a thorough practical ichthyologist,
and the lesson he inculcates still has its moral for
(I am afraid) the great majority of anglers. To
their credit be it said, however, there are very
many who aspire to better things, and who have en-
deavoured really to qualify themselves for the name
of fishermen of the first angling nation in the world.

I make no apology, therefore, for offering a few
remarks on the general outlines of Ichthyology,
more especially in their bearing on British sporting
fish, and as regarded from the angler's standpoint.

Fishes are, in scientific phraseology, "oviparous

ISO OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

vcrtebrata — vertebrate animals brina;ine forth csfSfs
— with a double circulation, and respiring through
the medium of water." Of such vcrtebrata, — that
is, animals possessing a backbone — they form the
fourth or lowest class in the great systematic divi-
sion of the Animal Kingdom ; and from the fact
that the salt waters alone occupy more than seven-
tenths of the globe's entire surface, and are in all
probability inhabited, stratiun super strahiui, as far
as, or even further down than the rays of the sun
can penetrate, it will readily be conceived that fish
are not only the most numerous of all vertebrate
animals, but must infinitely outnumber the whole
of the other three classes.

In common with other animals of the same divi-
sion fish possess a contiinums longitudinal ner-
vous axis, commonly called the " spinal marrow,"
situated in the centre of the spine, and composed
of four parallel columns, one pair of which receive
the nerves of sensation, coming from the surface
of the body, and the other pair form the roots of
the nerves of volition, or action, in connection with
the muscles governing the movements of the fish.
The vertebra^ or joints of the spine, forming the
backbone, in which this nervous axis lies, are in
many fishes wholly gristly, or cartilaginous, but in
others more or less bony. The term " spinal co-
lumn " includes both the nervous axis, or spinal
marrow, and its envelope.

r>y an enlargement of the anterior, or more for-

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 151

ward, end of the nervous axis the brain is formed,
with which the nerves of smell, sight, taste, and
hearing are connected. Immediately under the
spinal column, and divided from each other by
their membranes, are situated the organs of respi-
ration, circulation, digestion, excretion, and also,
when it exists, the air- or swim-bladder. This
type of structure is common to all vertebrate
animals ; but the peculiar attribute of Fishes is,
that in them the function of respiration, or oxygen-
ation of the blood, is performed through the me-
dium of zuatcr, not merely temporarily, but during
the continuance of life.

Duly to apprehend the various ' plans ' on which
fish are constructed requires a thorough acquain-
tance with piscine organization in all its forms.
Even a condensed treatise on such a subject would
necessarily occupy a volume. In the present out-
line, therefore, I shall only attempt to bring before
the reader the general characteristics and most
remarkable features, his attention being more par-
ticularly directed to those organs upon the modifi-
tions of which the classification of the various
families and species, especially of fresh-water fish,
is based.

The first and most important function of fish
and all other animals is breathing. For the pur-
pose of breathing fish are provided on each side of

152 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

the neck with gills {branchice, Latin), consisting of
arches of bone, to which the filaments, or spongy-
portions, of the gills are attached, and having
their surfaces covered by a tissue of innumerable
blood-vessels.

Of these branchial or gill-arches, there are in
fish five, of which four support the gills, the fifth
being appropriated to the " dentiferous pharyn-
geal arch," a long arch in the throat, bearing teeth.
In breathing the water is taken in at the mouth,
and, after passing through the gills, is allowed to
escape behind by the gill-openings. In its passage
through the gills and gill filaments, the water im-
parts to the latter the oxygen of the air which it
contains, and receives carbon in return, as in the
lungs of an air-breathing animal. The gills do not
decompose the water, so as to derive oxygen from
it, but merely separate the oxygen from the com-
mon air contained in the water. Hence, if water
is deprived of this air, or impregnated with un-
wholesome gases, fish cannot exist in it.

The gills also possess the power of imbibing
oxygen not only from the portion of the air which
is mixed with the water, but also directly from the
atmospheric air itself; and this process may fre-
quently be noticed in a vivarium, or other recep-
tacle for fish, where the water is foul, or not
changed sufficiently often, when the fish will be
observed to remain for long periods together with
their noses protruding out of the water. The

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 153

great majority of fishes, however, cannot continue
to breatlie in atmospheric air alone beyond a very
limited period, as, without the aid of fluid, the
leaves of the gills, or gill filaments, shortly become
stuck together, when, of course, the air cannot
pass between them, and they lose the power of
imbibing oxygen. From this results the gasping
of fishes out of water, which is the effort of nature
to separate the gill filaments.

The blood is propelled to the gills by the heart,
which thus answers to the right ventricle of warm-
blooded animals ; and from the gills it is sent to
an arterial trunk, lying immediately under the
backbone, forming the left or systemic ventricle
of the heart, which sends the blood throughout
the body.

In intimate connection with the organs of res-
piration occurs the question of the blood tem-
perature.

The consumption of oxygen in all fishes is
comparatively small, which may be the cause of the
cold nature of their blood. The temperature of
the bodies of fish that swim near the bottom is
seldom more than two or three degrees higher than
that ofthe water at its surface. In surface-swimmers
a temperature of 10° Fahr. above that ofthe water
has been occasionally found ; and it may be re-
ceived as a general law, that those fish which swim
near the surface have a high standard of rcspira-

154 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

tion (and, therefore, of temperature), die rapidly
on being taken out of the water, and have flesh
prone to quick decomposition, and vice versa. Two
better examples of these laws could not perhaps be
given than those of the Bleak, a surface-swimmer,
and the Tench, a ground-swimmer. Amongst sea-
fish, Mackerel, Salmon, and Herrings may be
quoted as instances of the former law, and Eels,
Flat Fish, and Skate, of its converse.
' With a low standard of respiration, and tenacity
of life, is connected the extraordinary power exhi-
bited by some species of sustaining extremes of.
high and low temperature. The Gold fish lives
and thrives in water as high as 85° Fahr. Fishes
exist in the hot springs and baths of various coun-
tries, ranging from 113° to 120°; and in South
America Humboldt states that he saw fish thrown
up alive, and apparently in health, from the bottom
of a volcano, along with water and heated vapour
which raised the thermometer to 210°, or two
degrees below boiling point. On the other hand,
in parts of Europe and North America, Perch and
Eels, and several species of Carp, are not uncom-
monly frozen and thawed again, and even trans-
ported from place to place in a frozen state, with-
out injury to life.

- Passing to the senses with which fish are en-
dowed, we come, as first in importance, to the
sense of Sight. The eyes of fish occupy entirely

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 155

different positions in different species, — in some,
such as the Sl<ate, being placed high up, near the
top of the head, and in others, as the Pike, lower
down on the side of the head (the more frequent
situation), their position, however, being always
adjusted to suit the habits of the particular fish.
The external surface of the eye itself is nearly Hat,
but the lens is spherical — a structure which, in a
dense medium, affords the greatest power of vision
at short or moderate distances, rather than a very
long sight. When water is clear and undisturbed,
however, the sight of fishes is very acute ; and for
this reason it is that a ruffled water is always pre-
ferable to a smooth one for purposes of fishing. I
believe that the sight of fish in clear water is
longer than is generally supposed. Standing by
the side of a Scotch loch in bright calm weather I
have occasionally noticed Pike basking at some
not inconsiderable distance from the shore, and
could plainly perceive that the observation was
mutual. The fish, after apparently regarding me for
a few moments, has generally backed slowly away
into the deep water, disappearing so motionlessly
— if I may use the expression — that the eye was
hardly aware of his retreat until becoming conscious
that he had vanished. Moreover it is well known
that a basking Chub will sink like a stone upon
the flitting of a swallow across the river ; that in
ponds where Carp are habitually fed by visitors,
the former will follow the latter about for the ex-

iS6 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

pected largesse; and that instances have been
authenticated — in several cases under my own ob-
servation— in which fish evidently recognized
their keepers, as well by sight as by sound : thus
clearly leading to the inference that, at any rate
in many positions, when we can see the fish, the
fish can see us — a hint to the fisherman worth
noting.

We next come to the sense of Hearing. Much
has been written at different times by clever ana-
tomists on the subject of the sense of hearing in
fish, some denying it entirely, and others asserting
its existence in a greater or less degree. The
former base their arguments mainly on the ab-
sence, in most species, of any external auricular
orifice, and the latter upon the internal structure
of the head, and practical experiment.

The probabilities of the question would appear
to be with those who maintain the existence of the
sense, inasmuch as fish, though generally wanting
the Eustachian tube, and tympanal bones, have
internal ears, or sacs which, if they do not answer
the purpose of hearing or its equivalent, cannot be
proved to answer any other. As instances of
proved hearing in fish, Mr. Yarrell mentions
that the Chinese, who breed large quantities of
gold fish, call them with a whistle to receive their
food. Sir Joseph Banks used to collect his fish by
sounding a bell ; and Carew, the historian of

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 157

Cornwall, brought his grey mullet together to be
fed by making a noise with two sticks.

As regards the sense of Feeling in fish, the rigid
nature of their scaly covering renders it probable
that in the generality of cases they possess but
little external sense of touch. Many of their
members are more independent of each other than
those of warm-blooded animals. They seem less
connected with common centres, " in this respect,"
as Mr. Kirby says in his " Bridgewater Treatise,"
" rather resembling vegetables."

Some of their parts, such as the fins, if muti-
lated, can be reproduced, and, indeed, a fish, like a
reptile, may be cut and almost dismembered with-
out appearing to suffer materially. Thus the
shark from which a harpoon has just dragged a
portion of its flesh pursues its prey without any
apparent loss of appetite or energy, and I have
myself hooked the same pike with the spoon-bait
three times within as many minutes.

That fish are wholly destitute of the organs of
feeling must not, however, be inferred. Such
organs are, indeed, to a certain extent, essential
for their self-preservation. The lips in many spe-
cies are soft and pulpy ; the mouths of others are
provided with barbules, or cirri — sometimes called
" barbels," or " beards," — largely supplied with
nerves, and acting, doubtless, as delicate organs of
touch, for detecting the nature of the substances

IS3 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

with wliich they come in contact. A remarkable
instance is observable in the Gurnards, which may
be said to be provided with long, flexible, sensitive
fingers, to compensate for their bony lips.

It is an almost universal rule that "bearded"
fish, like the Barbel and Gudgeon, obtain their
food close to the ground ; and these feelers appear
to be given as a compensating equivalent to species
which, restricted by instinct to feeding near the
bottom of water that is often turbid and deep,
must necessarily experience more or less imperfect
vision from the deficiency of light.

Fish are subject to comparatively few diseases,
probably owing to the even temperature of the
medium in which they exist. They are, however,
very liable to external and internal parasites, which
(with the exception of those peculiar to the
Salmon) generally attach themselves to sick or
wounded fish.

The sense of Smell in fish is considered by most
comparative anatomists to be very perfect. The
nerves are large, and the extent of the membranes
over which they expand so considerable that in a
shark 25 feet long it has been calculated at 12 t^
13 square feet.

The discrimination shown by fish in the selec-
tion and rejection of food, and the preference
stated to be exhibited for certain scented oils, &c.,
have been adduced as artruments in favour of

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 159

their acuteness of smell. The nostrils, which are
simple cavities near the end of the muzzle, divided
by a membrane, are generally pierced with two
holes, but both openings lead to the same common
canal.

The sense of Taste is more developed in the
herbivorous than in the carnivorous fishes ; but it is
in general probably of a low order, as a great part
of the tongue is bony, and frequently furnished
with teeth, placed there for the purpose of retain-
ing food or prey. Obliged necessarily to open and
close their jaws in respiring, they cannot long
retain food in the mouth when quite shut, and the
substance, if of small size, must be swallowed
quickly and without much mastication.

It has been thought possible, from the bony
nature of the tongue and the shape of the teeth,
which are calculated to assist in conveying food to
the back of the mouth, that the sense of taste may
reside in the soft, fleshy portions of the throat. A
low sense of taste generally, however, would ap-
pear to be inferred from the fact that fish are often
unable to distinguish poisonous substances, and
are accordingly frequently destroyed wholesale by
poachers.

In regard to the organs of digestion, the intes-
tines of fish generally are short, and the digestive
process very rapid — so rapid, in fact, in some of

i6o OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

the carnivorous species as to have been compared
to the action of fire and water combined.

The process is most rapid, and the intestines
shortest, in those species which live principally, or
wholly, on animal food ; and the intestines are con-
siderably longer, and the digestion proportionably
slower, in those which feed on vegetable sub-
stances. In some species, such for instance as the
Grey Mullet and the Gillaroo Trout, which swal-
low their prey whole, the walls of the stomach are
thickened so as to afford increased muscular
power, and in such species the stomach has a con-
siderable resemblance to the gizzard of a bird.
The intestines and stomach differ materially in dif-
ferent families. The kidneys are situated under
the spine.

The Brain of fishes, which is exceedingly small,
is formed, as already pointed out, by an enlarge-
ment of the extremity of the nervous axis, or
spinal marrow, and is disposed as in reptiles, with
the addition of " nodes " or " ganglions " at the
base of the nerves of smell.

The proportionate weight of brain in a Pike, as
compared with its body, is as i to 1,300; in the
Shark, as i to 2,500 ; and in the Tunny — a re-
markably stupid fish — but as i to 3,700.

The Swimming- (or Air-) Bladder, is one of those
organs which would naturally appear to be most

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. i6i

important in fish structure, and which is yet
curiously enough absent entirely in many species.
Other families have, however, under the spine, in
the abdomen, an air- or " swimming "-bladder,
varying in shape in the various species, which they
can expand or contract at pleasure. This bladder
— which is more general amongst fresh than salt-
water fish — is believed to be for the purpose of
enabling them to alter their specific gravity to suit
the densities, at different depths, of the water in
which they desire to swim or suspend themselves.

Many species, notwithstanding, though wanting
this apparatus, have very nearly the same habits
as those which possess it ; and in some of these
latter there is no external passage by which the
air in the bladder can be inspired or expressed.

Some bladders are composed of a single cham-
ber or cavity ; others of two chambers, and a few
of three.

Sexual Distinctions. — If we omit one or two
species, such as the Tench, there are usually no
very obvious external signs by which the sexes of
fish can be identified — except when in spawn.
The distinguishing peculiarities, however, which,
with a little practice, will be found useful as
guides, are as follows : — In the males, the respi-
ratory organs, or gills, are frequently larger than
in the females, and, on the other hand, the abdo-
men or stomach, is smaller. The males may.

1 62 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

therefore, often be known from the females by
their somewhat sharper or more pointed muzzles,
by the greater length of the gill-covers, and by the
body, from the back fin downwards, being less deep
as compared with the whole length of the fish.

Organs of Reproduction. — The productiveness
offish — a productiveness compared to which that of
every other living creature appears insignificant —
is limitless as the seas which they are for the most
part destined to range. The young produced by
one Cod fish at a single deposit have been found to
number little short of four millions, and those of
a Flounder to exceed one hundred and forty
thousand.

As before stated, with but one or two excep-
tions, fishes are oviparous — "bringing forth eggs"
— and the organs for this purpose are of the
simplest possible description. As the spawning-
season approaches two elongated lobes, or rolls, of
roe are formed between the ribs and the intestinal
canal, one on each side of the body. These, in
the female, are termed hard roe whilst in the fish,
and spaion after being deposited ; and in the male,
inilt, or soft roc, in both cases.

The lobes of roe in the female consist of a vast
number of separate grains, called ova, or eggs,
partially glued together, and enclosed in a bag or
sac reaching to the side of the anal aperture, through
which egress is permitted at the proper time. In

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 163

the male the lobes of roe are smaller than in the
female, and present the appearance of whitish fat ;
they remain firm until the actual spawning-season
when they become gradually fluid, and are ulti-
mately voided in small portions at a time on the
abdomen of the fish being slightly pressed.

At the spawning-time, which differs in almost
every species, the fish repair some to the gravelly
shallows or weedy banks of rivers and others to
the sandy bays of the sea. This is sometimes
called " going to hill," or " roading." The female
then deposits her eggs, in portions at a time, and
the male presses his milt out over them ; and
without this impregnation, no vivification, or hatch-
ing, can take place ; the eggs could never arrive
at maturity.

A few unimportant exceptions to this rule exist.
According to Cuvier, some species of the genus
Serramis have each lobe of roe made up half of
hard and half of soft roe, and these have been
considered as being capable of producing fertile
eggs without the assistance of a second fish. This
may, however, be very possibly considered as a
malformation rather than a natural structure.
Perch, Mackerel, Carp, Cod, and some others,
have been occasionally found with a lobe of soft
roe on one side, and a lobe of hard roe on the
other ; and in these cases it is probable that the
fish are prolific alone.

The female fish is in some instances attended

i64 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

by two males, one on each side, so as to secure the
impregnation of the greatest amount of spawn,
the range of milt being immensely increased by
diffusion in water.

After this process, the eggs are left amongst the
gravel, or sticking to weeds or other substances, the
glutinous nature of each egg supplying the means
of adhesion ; and when the time (which constantly
varies) for the hatching of the ^<g<g arrives, the
young fish breaks the shell, which has become
very thin, and escapes. Artificial production — by
impregnating the eggs taken from the female fish,
with the milt taken from the male — is now exten-
sively practised.

There are a few exceptions to the rule of fishes
being oviparous. Amongst Sharks and Rays one
or two species are viviparous, that is, producing
their young alive and complete in all respects. In
these fishes, which belong to the cartilaginous
series, the organs of reproduction are more compli-
cated in their structure than those of bony fish,
resembhng, in fact, the sexual organs in reptiles.

A few other species, again, such as the Dogfish,
and some of the Rays or Skates, bring forth their
young enclosed in bony cases. Their empty shells,
known by the names of " mermaids' purses,"
"skate-barrows," &c., are frequently picked up on
the sea-shore, and will be familiar to most of us,
though very possibly we may not have been
acquainted with their origin.

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 165

Scales : Formation and Uses. — The scales of
fish are productions of the skin, each scale being
attached to it by its more forward edge, which fits
into a sort of pocket or " follicle ;" but the manner
in which the scales overlap each other is variable.
Those down the side, forming the lateral line, are
pierced in the centre with openings, to allow the
escape of a lubricating fluid.

The heads of most fish also possess these
openings, or orifices, usually in greater numbers
than the other parts of the body ; and thus the
mucus or slime by which the scales of the fish
are, as it were, varnished, or waterproofed, being
exuded from the pores of the head is necessarily
carried backwards by the current — or, in still
water, by the progressive motion of the fish — and
spreads itself over the whole surface of the body.
The lubricating fluid is most abundant in fish with
small scales, such as Eels.

Occasionally the scales are entirely covered by
a soft thick cuticle, so as to be detected only by
close examination.

Cycloid, Ctenoid, Gafioid, and Placoid^ are the de-
nominations of the four different kinds offish scales.
The first two of these include all the most com-
mon forms of scales, and are marked with circular
or concentric lines discernible through a micro-

' From the Greek words cidos, signifying resemblance, and
cycles, a circle; cteis, a comb or rake; ganos, brilliancy, and
plax, a flat, level surface.

1 66 O UTLINES OF ICIITH VOL O G Y.

scope, each line denoting a successive stage of
growth by the addition of a fresh layer — the
smallest, or top layer, having been first produced
and the others added underneath.

In the Cycloids these circular lines are smooth ;
whilst in the Ctenoids they are furnished with
minute spiny points, or teeth, which, however,
usually wear off on the disc of the scale and
remain only on the posterior margin. The Ganoids
have a hard, shining, enamelled surface and other
peculiarities, and are found in some families of
salt-water fish.

The Placoids, which lack the hard enamel of
the Ganoids, are scattered over the Rays and
Sharks and one or two other groups.

Modes of Propulsion. — The principal organ of
motion in fishes is the tail, assisted by the simul-
taneous action of the fins. Progression is effected
by the tail striking obliquely right and left against
the water ; for which purpose the spine is con-
structed to bend sideways, or laterally, instead of
upwards and downwards as in most other verte-
brate animals.

Bones. — To give in detail an account of the
bones of the different kinds offish would occupy a
volume. There are twenty-five in the head of the
common Perch. Even in the case of the spine
the number of vertebrae composing the spinal

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 167

column varies greatly — from sixteen, for instance,
in the Sunfish (and fewer in other species) to 162
in the Conger Eel, and upwards of 230 in the
Electric Eel. The shapes of vertebrae also vary,
though commonly their centra, or bodies, are more
or less narrowed in the middle like an hour-glass.
The ends are cup-shaped, and the cups filled with
a bag of gelatine enclosed in a strong membrane,
which, being united round the rims, forms a very
elastic joint.

The head in various species differs much in
form, but in general consists of the same number
of bones as in other vertebrate animals. Of these,
the most important to the naturalist are the bones
forming the gills,* and those constituting the jaws.'^

Amongst the latter the inter- or pre-maxillary
forms in most fishes the edcre of the front of the
upper jaw, having the viaxillary behind it. The
situation of the palatine bones is in the roof of the
mouth, one on each side of the vomer ; and in the

' Opercula (from opcmdum, Latin for a lid, or cover).
Sub-Operculum.
Inter-Operculum.
Pre-Operculum.

^ Transverse, or pterygoid.
Palatal, or palatine bones (bones of palate).
Vomer (from romer, Latin for ploughshare).
Nasal.

Superior Maxillary, or maxillary (from maxilla, a jaw, Latin).
Inter-maxillary, or pre-maxillary.
Articular portion, &c.
Dental portion of the lower jaw, or inferior maxillary bone.

i6S

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

Perch both these bones and tlie pterygoid carry
teeth. The lower jaw, except in the cartilaginous
fishes, has generally two bones in each side : a
further reference to these bones will be found
under the Division " Teeth."

The relative positions of the bones composing
the gill-covers, or opcrctila, will perhaps be more
easily distinguished by a reference to the accom-
panying diagram of the head of a Trout, in which —

A represents the prc-opcrcuhnn, or fore-gill cover.
B, the operculum, or gill-cover proper.
c, the sub-opercuiuni, or under gill-cover.

D, the inter-operculum, or intermediate gill-cover.

E, the branchiostt'gous rays, or gill rays.'

It will thus be seen that the gill-covers consist
of four pieces each : — t\\<t pi^c-opa'C7ilum, or foregill-
cover, A ; the opcrcuhun, or gill-cover proper, b ;

From the Greek hninchia, gills, and sicgcin, to cover.

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 169

the sub-operculuni, or the under gill-cover, c ; and the
iW^y-tf/^rf?^/?/;;/, or intermediate gill-cover, d. The
three last of these are articulated, or jointed on, to
the temporal bone, and play upon th^ prc-opennlitiii
(a fixed bone), a ; and by the opening and shutting
of these gill-covers respiration is carried on.

The form of the gill-covers is of great impor-
tance, together with the fins and teeth, in deciding
the classification of fish.

The braiichiostcgous rays, or gill-rays, marked
E, form a bony fan-like appendage, or fringe, to the
lower margin of the gill-covers, to which they are
attached.

The Fins occupy a very prominent place in fish
structure, not only as organs of motion but as
affording by their nature, position, and number,
materials for distinguishing orders, families, and
genera.

The membranes of the fins are usually thin and
more or less transparent, and are supported by
slender bony processes, or props, called Jin-rays,
some of which are composed of single pieces,
pointed at the end, designated spinous rays, from
their resemblance to spines and thorns : and others
of a number of separate pieces united by joints,
and called, from their pliant nature, sofi ox flexible
rays.

Upon this difference In structure the two leading
divisions of bony fishes are founded.

I70 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

The numbers of fin-rays difier entirely In various
species, and, occasionally, in different individuals of
the same species.

The names of the fins are derived from the parts
of the body to which they are most commonly
attached, as shown in the annexed diagram. They
are : —

A. The pectoral or breast fins (so called from being placed
on the breast or shoulder of the fish).

E E. The dorsal, or back fins.

B. The ventral fins (named from their position on the belly).

C. The anal fin (placed close behind the anal aperture).

D. The caudal, or tail fin.'

F marks the lateral or side line.

This list includes the names of all the different
kinds of fins possessed by any fish, though the
numbers and arrangements of them vary in almost
every family, — some fish, such as the Salmon, for
instance, having two dorsal fins, and others, as the
Eels, lacking the ventrals altogether. The pec-
toral fins are considered to answer to arms or fore-
legs in other animals, and the ventrals to the
hinder legs ; and by means of the former several

' These names are derived from the Latin — pectus, the
breast ; dorsum, the back ; venter, the belly ; anus, the anal
aperture; cauda, the tail.

O UTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOG V. 171

of the spiny-finned species are enabled to progress
upon dry land, and even to travel considerable
distances from one pool to another. The pec-
torals are supported by two bones behind the
gills, one on each side, which are sometimes im-
bedded in the muscles, and sometimes connected
with the spine, but more generally attached to the
bones of the head. The ventrals are commonly
attached to the sides of the belly.

The Teeth of fish are closely connected with
the fins and gills, as furnishing marks by which the
sitb-geticra may frequently be distinguished, and
are so permanent in their characters in each spe-
cies as to be well worthy of particular attention.

In different families, however, teeth differ very
materially both in situation, number, and form, and
also even in different species of the same family.
An instance of this is seen in the dental arrange-
ment of the several species of Salmonidie, be-
tween which they furnish one of the readies.,
and most reliable means of distinguishing.

Again we find many families that are almost,
if not wholly, toothless ; whilst others possess
teeth on all the bones which assist in forming
the cavity of the mouth, and even on the bones
of the throat, or pharynx, behind these. This
latter is particularly the case in the herbivorous
fishes. Sometimes the teeth are uniform in shape
on the various bones of a single mouth. In

172 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

Other cases they are of different patterns. The
most usual form in carnivorous fish is that of a
slender elongated cone, slightly curved inwards
to assist in holding a struggling prey. In her-
bivorous fish the form is commonly that of a
short rounded tubercle with a flat crown, adapted
for crushing. Sometimes the teeth are so small
and numerous, more especially in insect-eaters, as
to have the appearance of the hairs of a brush.
Occasionally they are thin and flat, with a cutting
edge.

By these characteristics the habits and food of
fish may usually be as readily discovered as those
of graminivorous and carnivorous animals by the
same means.

The "throat teeth" in the Carp, Tench, Roach,
and Barbel are remarkably large, and would pro-
bably surprise most fishermen who have never
examined them.

The teeth are named according to the bone upon
which they are placed, as inter-maxillaty teeth,
maxillary, vomerine, palatmc, &c. The engraving
exhibits a front view of the mouth in the common
T rout {Salino /ario), which is chosen as displaying
the most complete series of teeth amongst the
Salmon family.

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

'73

\=^

A. Teeth on vomer, or central bone in the roof of the moutli.

R B. Teeth on right and \zi^. palatine bones.

c. Row of hooked teeth on each side of the tongue.

D D. Teeth on superior maxillary, or maxillary bones.

E E. Teeth on lower jaw, or inferior maxillary bones.

There are also in Ichthyology technical names
for teeth of different shapes. The teeth commonly
found in carnivorous fish, for example — slender
elongated cones in form— are termed acicjihir,
where stouter, subulate. If teeth are hair-like, and
short and densely crowded, they are said to be
villiform ; if longer and equally slender, ciliiform ;
if stronger and stiffer, sctiform, or brush-like ; if
still coarser and curved, card-like. When much
shorter than the last-named they become raduli-
forin, or rasp-like.^

Conical teeth longer and stronger than the others
on the jaw are named canines; and those with
broad flat crowns, molars, which is the name given to
the large flat teeth of the Carp, already referred to.

' Yarrell's " British Fishes." J. Van Voorst.

174 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

These names take their origin from the Latin
words aciciila, a small needle ; snbitla, an awl ;
vilhis, a fleece ; ciliurn, an eye-lash ; seta, a bristle
or brush ; radiila, a scraper ; canis, a dog ; viola, a
mill.

Fish Classification.

Fish are divided into — i. Series; 2. Orders;
3. Families ; 4. Genera ; and 5. Species.'

The two grand series of fishes consist of —

(i .) Those possessing bony skeletons, which are
called trtie, ox bony fishes ; and

(2.) Those which have skeletons of cartilage or
gristle, which are called cartilaginous fishes, or
chondropterygii. The latter also want some bones
of the jaws, and have other peculiarities.

The TRUE or BONY FISH are divided into
six orders, viz. : —

ORDER I.

AcANTHOPTERYcn, OF Spi7iy-finncd fisli. (From Gr. acantlta,
a spine, and /'ie/yg/oft, a fin.)

In this order the first portion of the back fin, or first back
fin, when there are two, always has spinous rays or supports —
which are also found in the anal and ventral fins.

This Order contains Fifteen Families.

The Malacopterygo, or Soft-finned fish (from the Gr.
nialacos, soft, znd fiterygion, a fin), furnish three Orders founded
upon tht position of the ventral fins, viz.: —

' Sometimes, for the sake of convenience. Families are fur-
ther separated into Divisions or Sub-Divisions, and Genera
into Sub-Genera.

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 175

ORDER II.

The Malacoptervgii Abdominales, or Abdominal Sofi-
fititied Fish. (From the Latin abdomen, the belly.)

So called from the ventral fins being attached to the abdo-
men, behind the pectorals, without being jointed on to the
shoulder-bones.

It includes five Families, in which are the greater number of
our fresh-water fish.

ORDER III.

Malacoptervgii Sub-br.\chiata, or Soft-finned Fis/i ici/ii
lower arms. (From Latin sitb, under, and braciiii/m, an arm.)
— Named from their having the ventral fins under the pectorals,
thus giving the idea of lower arms.

In this Order, which consists of three Families, the pelvis is
suspended to the shoulder-bones.

ORDER IV.

Malacoptervgii Apodes, or Soft finned Fish wit/ioiit feet.
(From Gr. a, a privative, and pons, a foot.) — Have no ventral
fins, which, being supposed to represent feet, have thus by their
absence given the designation of " Footless,"

Has only a single Family.

ORDER V.

Lophoeranchii, Fish with their gills in tufts. (From Gr.
lofhos, a tuft, and branehia, gills.) — This arrangement of the gills
is peculiar to this Order, which, moreover, have the gill-covers
entirely closed behind, with the exception of a single small hole.

Only one Family.

ORDER VI.

Plectognathi, or Fish 7vith soldered jaws. (From Greek
plekein, to bind, and gnaihos, a jaw.) — This Order has no true
ventral fins. Many of its characteristics resemble those of the
cartilaginous fish. The chief peculiarity is the maxillary bone
being soldered to the side of the inter-maxillary, which consti-

176 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

tutes the upper jaw — in other words, the jaw-bones being sol-
dered together.
Two FamiHes.

The CARTILAGINOUS FISH, or CHON-
DROPTERYGII (from the Greek chondros,
cartilage, and pterygion, a fin), consisting of two
Orders, viz. : —

ORDER I.

Chondropterygii BranchiisLiberis, or CaiUlaginoiis Fish
with free gills. (From Latin hranchia, gills, and liber, free.) —
The Fish forming this Order have a single wide opening in their
gills, and a gill-cover as in the Bony Fish ; but no gill-rays.

The Order contains two Families.

ORDER II.

Chondropterygii Branchiis Fixis, or Cartilagiiwus Fish
7uith fixed gi/is. (From tlie Latin l>ra/ichicr, gills, and fixis,
fixed.) — These fish have their gills fixed at the outer edges, with
a separate opening through which the water from each gill
escapes. They have also small cartilaginous arches suspended
in the muscles opposite the gills, which may be called gill-ribs.

They form two Families.

The foregoing eight Orders are again subdivided
into FamiHes, Genera, and Species, as already
stated.

The following List exhibits in a tabular form
the classification above explained, with the addi-
tion of the names of the various Families : —

2

o

1— 1

H

<

U

1— <

l-H

C/5

c/)

W

fe

CO

5

<
J

o

u

w

K

in

fe

E.S -2

^__ M s ; ,

Ob '^ ?^ -J:-; ?■!

f/V

W

ffi

rn

t— <

te

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C/J

•— '

D

CO

n

iz;

a!

»— (

(73

h4

t-H

H

Pi

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U

So," urs-^

•50? 5 K i!

•HO2- gj-g S„-g -JEo:

^iTi

c^^ -a

li

y.9-,%

/

4) U.jC ■"
> ^

'— r-i ,' /-- V -^

^

•- ji<; 0

^ a, — — ^

1

■-C

•sits

1 -si^l^

5-S

■^l^.i

OQ-fc.'-"

^

-5

J:'>,^-3

HON

■/ac/ti-

■S

3

•^ ^-

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" - ' _ .

r^^

= =":e.^

c2 „

ii2

1; 'O .~ '-J

T

d
0

V

i

i

Jl V it ^^

M

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tn ^ rt -* ;;

1L> _^ X ^ ~;

^

-5

J3

■i^|l^

§2 1

0

2 " -- ;5

" 2 « C rt

UM

f 13 Sj=j:i

- ."2 bfl :: rt
" c ^ S-C

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O S

f-^-c-^

Otn

<i

^1 .

>>

4J -•

^i

T ^-i'

•£■6

■203

amilies,
rinidce
rp fami

T'i

■s 1

111

i '2

k^

i

4S

2<

^

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rn

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ih

rt S aj3

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= a,
E „

S -S

•^ <

^i^i:

Cs. U. !>; C/f ^ L^ C/5

11

N

178 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

The following is a classification, according to
their families, genera, &c., of fish inhabiting British
fresh waters. It will be observed that with the ex-
ception of the Lampreys and Lamperns the whole
of them belong to the first series, which we have
seen consist of the True, or bony, fishes. The
Lamperns and Lampreys belong to the second, or
Cartilaginous, series of fish.

In this list I do not include doubtful species,
such as the so-called Loch Leven Trout ; Gold
and Silver fish (the common gold fish of the
aquaria) ; Golden Tench ; or Salino Fontmalis,
and other species of an admittedly non-indigenous
character, or only recently acclimatized.

In regard to the technical names of the fish, the
first indicates the genus, and the second the spe-
cies, as, for example, Pcrca Jluviatilis — Perca re-
presenting the genus, and Jluviatilis the species —
the Perch of the river, — and so on.

1ST Series.
TRUE, OR BONY, FISH.

Order I.
Spiiiy-finncd Fish.

Family i. Perches — Percid.e.
Species.
Perch. {Perai Jiiivia/ilis.)
Ruffe, or Pope. {Aicriiia vii/givis.)

Family 2. Fisii with hard cheeks.
Species.

Bullhead, or Miller's Thumb. {Q'llt^s gobio.)

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 179

Rough-tailed Stickleback. (Gastcroslciis trachunis.')
(Five other species.)

Order II.
Soft-fimied Fish with ventral fins on the belly.

Family i. Carps — CvPRiNiDyE.

Species.

Common carp. {Cyprinus carj>w.)

Prussian, or Gibel, Carp. {Cyfrinus f;ibi-lio.)

Barbel. {Barbus vulgan's.)

Gudgeon. ( Gohio fluviatilis. )

Tench. {Tiwa vulgaris.)

Bream, or Carp Bream. {Abramis braiiia.)

White Bream, or Bream-flat. {Abramis b/iaa.)

Pomeranian Bream. [Abramis Buggcnhagii.)

Dace. {Leuciscus vulgaris.)

Roach. {Leuciscus riitilus.)

Rudd, or Red-eye. {Leuciscus erythrophthalmus.)

Chub. {Leuciscus cephalus.)

Graining. {Leuciscus Lancastriciisis.)

Bleak. {Leuciscus alburnus.)

Minnow. {Leuciscus p/uwinus.)

Loach. {Cobitis barbatula.)

Spined Loach, or Groundling. {Cobitis taiiia.)

Family 2. Pikes — Esocid.'e.
Species.
Common Pike, or Jack. {Esox lucius.)

Family 4. Salmon and Trout — Salmonid.^.
Species.

Salmon. {Salmo salar.)

Bull Trout. (Grey Trout, Sewin, or Roundtail.) {Salmo

eriox.)
Sea Trout (or Salmon Trout). {Saliuo trutla.)
Common (or Yellow) Trout. {Salmo fa rio.)
Great Lake Trout. {Salmo ferox.)
Charrs.

i8o OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

Grayling. (^Thyviallus 'i-uh^iiris.)
Fresli ^\■atel• Herrings. {Corcgoiii.)

(Four species or varieties.)

Order III.
Soft-finncd Fish having lower arms.

l"'amily i. Cod — G.vdid.e.
Species.
IJmbot, or Eel-pout. {Lota vn/gan's.)

Order IV.

Sflfi-Fiimcd Fish lacking ventral fins.

Family i. Eels — MuR/ENID/E.
Species.
Sharp-nosed Eel. {Anginlla aciitiri'stris.)
Broad-nosed Eel. {Aiigiii/ia laiirosiris.)
Snig. {Angiiilla mcdiorostris. )

2ND Series.

CARTILAGINOUS FISH.

Order II.

Fish with Fixfd GUIs.

Family i. T^ish with mouth formed in a sucker.

CVCLOSTOMATA.

Species.

Lamprey, or Sea Lamprey. {Pdiomyzflii inariniisi)
Lampern, or River Lamprey. iPctromyzimJliiviatilis.)
Fringed-lipped Lampern. [Pctroiiiyzpn P/ancri.)

To give a practical example of this classifica-
tion : — The Common or River Perch is 2i species of
the gcfuts Pcrca, of the Fajnily of the Pcrcidcr, of
the Order Acanthroptcrygii, belonging to the True
or Bony series of fish ; or, in other words, is the
first .Species, of the first Genus, of the first Family,
of the first Order, of the first Series.

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. iSi

In conclusion, a few suggestions for enabling
the spoctsman more readily to identify his fish, and
for the treatment of any supposed new species or
varieties, may possibly not be altogether out of
place. First, then, upon the capture of any such
specimen, the best and simplest course is imme-
diately to preserve it in methylated (or common)
spirit of wine — or failing these, any other strong
spirit — when it can be examined and pronounced
upon at leisure. Dried or stuffed fish are compa-
ratively useless for scientific purposes. If, how-
ever, from any cause it should be found imprac-
ticable to preserve the specimen, the next best
thing is a correct description in writing ; and to
give this with sufficient accuracy to make it of value
to science — to render it, in short, such that a natu-
ralist shall be justified in pronouncing upon it with
reasonable certainty — all that is required is the
clear comprehension and record in an intelligible
form of a few simple facts.

The first point to be noted is the nature of the
Fins — whether generally soft and flexible as in the
Salmon and Carp, or hard and spiny as in the
Perch : upon this it depends in which of the two
principal divisions of Bony Fishes the species
should be placed. This distinction is so obvious
and remarkable, that when once mentioned it
cannot be overlooked by the least careful ob-
server ; and as to one or the other of these divisions
belongs ever)' fish, without exception, of which the

1 82 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

Sportsman takes cognizance, its importance is evi-
dent. The spiny-finned fishes contain fifteen
Families, but no great subordinate divisions. The
soft-finned fish, on the contrary, are divided into
three strongly-marked Orders founded upon the
position, or absence, of the ventral fins; and
to the first of these — vialacoptcrygii abdoniinalcs
— belong the whole of our soft-finned sporting
fish.

The division in which any fish is to be classed
having been thus decided, it remains only to deter-
mine its family and species.

As regards family no difficulty whatever can be
experienced, there being only four families in all
to which it can belong, and these being clearly re-
cognizable by the most obvious signs.

To commence with the spiny-finned fishes : —
All the sporting fish of this order belong to one
Family, the Percidce — of which the Perch is the
type ; whilst those having soft fins are embraced
in three families : the Cypi-inidcc, of which the
Carp is the type ; the Esocidcc, of which the Pike
is the type ; and the Salmonidcr, of which the
Salmon is the type. In regard to these families,
again, no difficulty can be found, every species of
the Salmon possessing the peculiar characteristic
of two back fins, and no other species of the same
Order more than one, — the Pike, of which we have
only a single variety, being totally dissimilar from
every other family, — and the remaining species

OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 183

without exception belonging to the Cyprinidae, or
Carp family.

To decide with certainty between different
genera, or different species of the same genus, re-
quires a more minute observation and comparison,
according to the " characteristics " which will be
found appended to each. The points upon which
such minor distinctions depend, and which will
consequently be those to be particularly observed
and noted, are : —

(a.) The shape of the body, which can be best ascertained
by placing the fish straight on a sheet of white paper, and,
when it has stiffened, carefully tracing the outline with a pencil.
(b.) The relative positions of the yfw (see p. 170); and their
form, more especially as regards the back- and tail-fins, whether
forked, concave, square, or convex, (c.) The form of the head
z.nA gill-covers (see p. 16S), and their length from the tip of the
muzzle to the hinder margin, as compared with that of the
whole body, measuring from the tip of the muzzle to the
extremity of the tail, (d.) The nature of the tcctk and the
names, if possible, of the boius on which they are placed
(see pp. 171-174). (e.) The colouring of the body and fins
of the fish, when first caught, (f.) The number of scales
forming the lateral line. (G.) The number of 7?«-;i?)'^, or sup-
ports, in each fin.

These, in the tail fin, are counted from the first long ray out-
side, either above or below; and in the other fins in all cases
from the first ray nearest the head of the fish.

The fin-rays are denoted, as in these pages, by placing the
initial letter of the name of the fin before the numeral express-
ing the number of rays it contains — as D. (for " Dorsal ") 9 : P.
(for "Pectoral") 15 : &c. Take, for example, the fin-rays of
the Gudgeon, which are particularly simple : —

D. 9: P. 15 : V. 8: A. 7: C. igj.

Occasionally there are short incumbent rays on the base of

i84 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY.

the tail fin, above and below the longest rays, and these are
frequently omitted from the reckoning ; when they are men-
tioned, it is in general in the shape of a fraction ])laced after the
number of the full-length rays, the numerator denoting those
above the fin, and the denominator those below it, as in the
example. When there is more than one dorsal fin, the rays are
enumerated with a line between them — •

D. 9 — 12 :
the first numeral having reference to the first, or more forward,
fin.

In the fish having two dorsals, as the Perch, the first is
usually wholly spinous, and this is indicated as in the last case,
by a line between the two numbers ; when, however, there is
but one dorsal, of which the fore part only is spinous, the sign
+ is placed between the spinous and soft rays.

This is also the rule in regard to other fins partly spiny and
partly soft : thus —

(Fin-rays of Perch.) D. 15 — 1 + 13: P. 14: V. 1+5:
A. 2+8: C. 17.

Some of the soft-finned fish have an occasional spinous ray ;
and when this is the case their position, &c., should be fully
described — a perpendicular line after such spinous ray being
drawn in the ray formulary. Take the fin-rays of the Common
Carp for example : —

D. 4/19: P. 17: V. 9: A. 3/5: C. 19.
In this instance the fourth dorsal and third anal fin-rays are
spinous.

T\^>i form of the gill-covers has been mentioned
as one of the points to be relied on for distin-
guishing one species from another ; for whilst,
owing to circumstances of food, water, or climate,
different individuals of the same species will often
differ widely from each other, and from their ori-
ginal type (in so far at least as regards those ex-
ternals which most readily strike an unscientific

OUTLIXES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 1S5

eye), the peculiarities of structure of the gill-cover,
apparently of little moment, ma)-, from their im-
portance and permanence, not unfrequently indi-
cate totally distinct and immutable species.

Any permanent and unvarying difference in the
form of the head, formation of the gill-covers, and
dental system, coupled with variations of colour,
form, habit, or the like, which might otherwise be
deemed casual, are held to constitute a distinct
species.

A good example of this difference is seen in the
form of the gill-covers of the Salmon and the Sea
Trout — the hinder marcjin of the oill-cover formin^r
in the true Salmon almost a semicircle, whilst that
of the Sea Trout approaches more nearly a right
angle, and both differ somewhat from the gill-
covers of the Bull Trout.

CHISWICK PKE6S ;— C. WHITTINCHAM .AND CO., TOOKS COUKT,
CHANCERY LANE.

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