ground-baiting; but it is not a bait with which I can say I have ever had much success.

Boiled Rice is probably the best ground-bait for minnows, bran for bleak, and gentles for roach and dace. By only bearing this in mind much trouble will be saved in procuring supplies of live bait with the casting-net. A stillish curve or eddy of the river about two feet deep will be found the best description of water for the application of this principle of baiting and for using the casting-net effectually.

As a 'ground-bait' for perch, my friend, Mr. Jesse, informed me some years ago that a tolerably clear glass vessel filled with minnows, and with a wire covering over it, sunk to the bottom of a pond or river, proves a most enticing, and, of course, longlasting ground-bait for fish. I can imagine that the exasperation of fruitlessly rubbing their noses against the bottle will make them go considerably for the real minnow when offered to them.

Worse than Tantalus was their annoy

To clip Elysium and to lack their joy.

Somebody else has lately written that a bottle of bright coloured flowers has a singularly seductive effect upon the fishappetite, or curiosity, whichever it may be. Enthusiasts with more leisure than I have may perhaps be inclined to try the experiment. The bottle must, of course, be anchored in some way, and for the purpose might, perhaps, as well be filled with water, which would keep the flowers alive for a time at any rate.

To sum up as a general rule-to which, of course, the above are exceptions-the rationale of ground-baiting is that the bait used on the ground should be of the same description as, but of inferior quality to that used on the hook.

Another hint. After ground-baiting for the next day, or a subsequent campaign, plumb the exact depth and have the tackle all ready arranged so that it may not be necessary to disturb the water when the fishing actually commences. No fish are likely to swallow the plummet and many may probably be scared by it.

THE PERCH. (Perca fluviatilis.)

Not a nibble has ruffled my cork,

It is vain in this river to search, then ;

I may wait till it's night

Without any bite,

And at roost time have never a perch then !—HOOD.

THE Common perch is, to quote an old writer, both 'good fysheing and good eating,' and has an especial claim on the notice of the tyro as owing to his combined pluck and greediness he very frequently falls the first victim to their bow and spear. In fact, in many cases he requires hardly any art whatever to catch him, and, being a pond as well as a river fish, and spread pretty generally over the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, offers special facilities for being found. This distribution, however, although, as observed, very general, is by no means equal. In Wales, for example, the perch is almost rare and confined principally to stagnant waters. In Ireland it is more widely diffused but still somewhat unequally, and in Scotland, whilst very common south of the Firth of Forth, it becomes comparatively scarce to the north of it, and ceases entirely amongst the Sutherland and Ross-shire waters, or where observed is supposed to owe 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, the greatest show as to quantity; and the Kennet, from Hungerford to Reading, the finest specimens for general size and weight. In this latter river, near Kettering, Mr. Francis Hughes and myself took on one occasion several dozen perch, averaging more than a full pound weight each, and the largest fish considerably exceeded two pounds. A few large

ones are to be found in the Hampshire Avon, where I once caught one weighing nearly 2 lbs. The numbers of perch existing in Windermere and Slapton Ley, Devonshire, are almost incredible; but their size is insignificant, rarely passing a few inches, and more commonly being still less.

Even in the Thames, after the first flood has swept them into the eddies and mill tails, I have caught them literally as fast as I could drop in a paternoster. I remember once when fishing behind Temple Mills above Marlow, with Mr. Henry R. Francis and the late Tom Rosewell, we caught upwards of twelve dozen in this way, besides some jack, in a few hours on a late autumn or winter afternoon, and my remembrance is that we only stopped catching them for want of bait.

The perch of the Thames, which is also noticeable for its fine colouring, probably owes its superior gastronomic attractions to the great purity of the stream above the 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 breeds, it is seldom other than palatable as well as wholesome, and it is on this account a frequent item in the invalid's dietary. Izaak Walton, indeed, mentions a German proverb which would give it a very high place as a comestible,- More wholesome than a pearch o' Rhine,'-and quotes a learned authority to the effect that it possesses a small stone in the head thought to be very 'medicineable,' and which was at one time an ingredient in our Pharmacopoeia.

The perch lives long out of water (resembling in that respect the carp and tench species), and if carried with care, and occasionally moistened, will in cold weather exist for several hours in this condition, not unfrequently undergoing a journey of thirty or forty miles without serious injury. Yarrell says that perch are constantly exhibited in the markets of Catholic countries, where they are a popular article of 'fast' diet; and on these occasions, when not sold, they are taken back to the ponds from which they came, to be reproduced at another opportunity.

The best mode of 'transferring' perch, as well as carp and tench, which possess the same amphibious qualities in common, is to place them loosely among wet sedgy grass, in a coarse wicker basket, through the interstices of which the air can circulate freely. By this means specimens may be conveyed by fast train from London to Inverness, or for any similar journey, without injury, as Mr. Stoddart states, to their vital functions. The only precautions necessary to be observed are that they must not be too closely packed, that is, not too many between the same layers of wet grass, and that fresh water should be sprinkled over them every now and then to keep the consignment cool. As minnows are one of the most common and killing, perhaps the most killing, perch bait, it may be well to refer here to the instructions for carrying live baits given at pages 42-7, all of which are fully applicable to minnows. A dozen or two may, however, be carried in a common soda water bottle for several hours by frequently changing the water; the bottle should not be more than three parts full. When the minnows begin to exhibit symptoms of distress, which is known by their rising to the surface of the water, it is a sign that a fresh supply is needful. In an emergency they may, however, be partially restored, without changing the water, by simply extracting the cork and shaking the contents of the bottle so that the water may be re-aerated. Another plan mentioned by Mr. Stoddart, who was an adept in minnow fishing for trout, was to carry them loosely wrapped up in well-wetted grass or moss in the corner of the fishing basket, by which expedient, the vitality more or less, and the consequent freshness of the minnows may be preserved throughout an entire day; and the same treatment will be found successful when applied to loach and sticklebacks.

I am not prepared to say that they will be as lively at the end of the day as when first put into the moss, but if care is taken to carry out the instructions given and sprinkle the moss or grass frequently, they will, at any rate, preserve a certain amount of vitality and freshness, which will fit them admirably for spinning.

:

But to return such is the extraordinary hardiness and longevity of the perch, according to authorities, that there is one of the perch genus, Perca scandens or Climbing Perch, a native of several parts of the East, which not only travels over land, but actually ascends trees in pursuit of the crustaceans upon which it feeds, having been taken at an altitude of many feet from the ground.

The structure of this fish peculiarly fits it for the exercise of this remarkable instinct. Its gill covers are armed with a number of spines, by which, used as hands, it appears to suspend itself. Making its tail a lever, and standing, as it were, on the little spines of its anal fin, it endeavours to push itself upward through the interstices of the bark by the expansion of its body, closing at the same time its gill covers that they may not impede its progress; then, reaching a higher point, it opens them again. Thus, and by bending the spiny rays of its dorsal fins to right and left and fixing them in the bark, it continues its journey upwards. These 'travelling fish' are all more or less expressly equipped by nature for the purpose.

Whilst alluding to the late Mr. Stoddart, not only as a mighty fisher of trout, but also of salmon, it is pleasant to find that notwithstanding his almost unrivalled opportunities of satiating his tastes in this direction, he yet kept a warm corner of his heart for the humbler pursuits of float fishing and especially perch fishing by pond and lake.

There is a diversion, after its kind, he says, in watching for the dip of one's float, near the edge of a lake or pool, in which you have reason to know that perch are tolerably plentiful, and of a size, in the long run, worth capturing; diversion, sufficient at least; which will content and ever excite thousands among the Waltonian order of anglers; nay, to work upon the fancy, now and then, of the experienced slaughterer of trout and salmon. I admit, for my own part, under these circumstances, that I take special pleasure in a few hours' perch fishing. The variety itself is most acceptable; and many a time would I gladly exchange, on that score alone, a promising forenoon's sport on Tweed or Teviot for a quiet fling in Yetholm or Pasten Loch, two well-known preserves