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this species venture into any running streams; its principal resort is in the cold lakes of the Lapland Alps, where it is fed by the innumerable quantity of gnats that infest those dreary regions.

The largest and most beautiful chars are found in the lake of Winander-Mere, in Westmoreland, where there are three species, the red, the gilt, and the case char, These kinds are nearly similar in their external appearance; but the time and manner of their spawning is very different. The method of taking these fish is with nets, or trammels, as they are called, which are furnished with bait to allure the fish, and left for several days, till they are known to enter them.

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THE mouth of this fish is toothless; their gills have three rays, and their belly fins frequently nine: their form is somewhat thick; and their colour blue green above, greenish-yellow mixed with black, on the upper part of their sides, whitish beneath, and the tail yellow or violet: the scales are large: on each side of the mouth there is a single beard, and above this another, shorter: the dorsal fin is long, extending far towards the tail, which is forked. They are found in the slow rivers and stagnant waters of Europe and Persia, and here principally in deep holes under the roots of trees, hollow banks, or great beds of flags, &c. When full grown, they are nearly four feet in length, and twenty pounds in weight.-Carps are supposed to have been brought to this country by a Sussex gentleman, about the year 1514, in which county, perhaps, this fish abounds, more than in any other.

Carp, from their quick growth and vast increase, are the most valuable of all fishes for the stocking of ponds; and if the breeding and feeding of them were better un

derstood, and more practised, the advantages resulting from them would be very great. These fish spawn in June, and sometimes in May, when it is a forward spring, seeking places covered with grass or plants, for depositing their eggs. They feed principally on mud worns, and aquatic insects.

THE BREAM.

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THE bream has a blunt snout; the upper jaw is a little protubed; the front is dark blue, the cheeks inclining to yellow: the fish, when at its full growth, is broad and thick; the young ones, on the contrary, are narrow and long: they are covered with pretty large scales; the back is blackish, sharp, and resembles a bow on the stretch. The lateral line is curved towards the belly, and ornamented with about fifty black spots. The tail is a little forked, and of a dark blue colour.

This fish is an article of great importance on the Continent. It is found in all the great lakes, and in rivers which have a gentle current, and a bottom composed of marl, clay, and herbage.-It is taken mostly under the ice; and this fishery is so considerable, that in some of the lakes belonging to Prussia, there have been taken to the value of two hundred pounds at a time; they are also caught in great quantities at Holstein, Mecklenburg, Livonia, and Sweden: in a lake near Nordkiæping, there were taken at one time in March, 1749, no less than fifty thousand, weighing eighteen thousand two hundred pounds.

The bream may be taken with divers kinds of nests in spawning time: and, being fond of worms, will readily take a bait.

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THIS fish is remarkable for its numerous progeny.—It is deep, yet thinly made, in shape nearly resembling the bream, but approaching to the carp by the breadth and shape of its scales, which are large and fall off at different seasons of the year. The soundness of the flesh has become proverbial, and pleases the taste by a peculiar delicacy of flavour. The belly-fins are of a bright crimson, and the irides of the eyes sparkle like rubies and granite. The size of the roach is commonly between nine and ten inches, but sometimes attains a much greater bulk.

THE PERCH.

THIS fish seldom grows to any great size, and the largest, of which we have any account, is said to have weighed nine pounds. The body is deep; the scales rough; the back arched; and the side lines placed near the back. For beauty of colour, the perch may rival the gaudiest of the inhabitants of the pond, the lake, or the river; the back glows with the deep reflections of the brightest emerald, divided by five broad stripes; the belly imitates the tints of the opal and mother of pearl, and the ruby hues of the fins complete an assemblage of colours the most harmonious and elegant. It is a gregarious fish, and is caught in several rivers of this island; the flesh is firm, delicate, and much esteemed. They are generally boiled in wine or vinegar, which adds a considerable solidity and flavour to the flesh.

These animals are remarkably tenacious of life; and some of them, particularly the river-perch, have been carried sixty miles among straw, and have survived the journey. From the ease with which this fish is taken and transported, it has become the most common inhabitant of our fish-ponds.

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THE chub is of a coarse nature, and full of bones; it seldom exceeds the weight of five pounds. The body is of an oblong shape, nearly round; the head, which is large, and the back, are of a deep dusky green; the sides silvery; and the belly white; the pectoral fins are of a pale yellow, the ventral and anal ones red; and the tail brown, tinged with blue at its extremity, and slightly forked. This fish frequents the deep holes of rivers, but in the summer season, when the sun shoots his golden rays through the pellucidity of the crystal-like waters to the smooth and resplendent pebbles that pave the bed of the stream, it ascends to the surface, and lies quiet under the cooling shade of some tree that spreads its foliage on the verdant banks; but yet, though it seems to indulge itself in slumbers, the fear of danger, that innate sense of self-preservation, one of the first laws of nature, keeps the creature awake, and at the least alarm its dives with rapidity to the bottom. It lives on all sorts of insects. In March and April, the chub is to be caught with large red worms; in June and July, with flies, snails, and cherries; but in August and September, the proper bait is good cheese pounded in a mortar, with some saffron and a little butter. Some make paste of cheese and Venice turpentine for the chub in winter, at which season this fish is much better than at any other, the bones are less troublesome, being more easily separated from the flesh in this season, and the flesh more firm and better tasted; the roe is also well-flavoured in general. If the angler keeps his bait at the bottom in cold weather, and near the surface in the hot season, the fish is sure to bite soon, and will afford a most pleasing sport.

The ancient naturalists have enumerated five varieties of this fish; some of which are found in the Danube and the Rhine. The above species inhabit most of the rivers in this island.

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THE head of this fish is somewhat similar to the carp. The body is broad, the tail narrow: the ground colour is red, which is beautifully relieved by broad silvery stripes all along the body; the belly is white. The fins are small; the scales broad, thin, finely radiated, and very loose: the pectoral, tail, and ventral fins, are yellow at their origin, and grey at the extremities; and a kind of spine runs along the root of the ventral fin.

This species is found in both Indies; it takes its name from the Isle of St. Croix at the Antilles, from whence a specimen of it was received.

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The

THESE fish are esteemed the most elegant of all the finny tribe. The male is of a bright red colour from the top of the head to the middle of the body; the rest is of a gold colour, but it is so splendid that the finest gilding cannot approach it. The female is white, but her tail, and half of her body, resembles the lustre of silver. red and white colours are not always the distinguishing marks of the male and female; but the females are known by several white spots which are seen round the orifices, that serve them as organs of hearing, and the males have these spots much brighter. The nostrils of the gold-fish are double, wide, and placed near the

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