CHAPTER XII. THE BREAM. THERE are three species of breams known in European waters, and these have been scientifically named respectively, Abramis brama (the carp-bream), Abramis blicca (the white bream), and Abramis Buggenhagii (or Pomeranian bream). The first of these is the most common in English waters, and, as its name would convey, it possesses certain characteristics of the carp, which characteristics, be it said, vary according to the depth and colour of the water from which the fish is taken. I know, for example, specimens of the carp-bream to come up in autumn flood time in colour far from resembling their antetype, rather, indeed, of a slaty grey hue than like the carp, "with scales bedropped with gold," and, on the other hand, I have taken them from the Thames of an almost bronze appearance. The same variation, however, appears in connection with all fishes, and is as unaccountable as it is curious. The white bream is a fish of silvery whiteness, and rarely exceeds a pound in weight. It is found in Dagenham Lake, and in some other waters in Cambridgeshire. I have taken one from the Thames, but believe that such a capture is exceedingly rare. The Pomeranian bream is a still rarer fish, and is chiefly found, as its name indicates, in Pomerania. It is said to have been taken from near Wolverhampton, and also from Dagenham Reach. It is much thicker in body, and the number of its throat teeth is different from that of the other species. A comparison of all these fish readily teaches the angler the difference between them. As the average fisherman is very likely to meet with the two firstnamed occasionally from the same water, and as these two fish are much more alike when small than the Pomeranian is to either, I will, before going from the subject, give one or two simple hints by which the tyro can distinguish the fish. First, the colour is quite different, the white bream being of a sheeny white always, more like a bleak in hue than any other fish; the carp-bream is always more or less coloured. Secondly, the throat teeth of the white bream are in two rows on each side, numbering two and five respectively. The carp-bream has only one row on each side, numbering five. Thirdly, comparison of scales will always decide. The carp-bream in proportion does not form nearly so large a scale as the bream-flat; indeed, it is not quite half as large, and its outline on one side generally slopes away at an acute angle. The native countries of the ordinary bream seem to have been central Europe, as well as the north, Finland, and Seandinavia. It is a quiet, sluggish sort of creature, thriving also well in lakes. Nillson says it is found in Sweden and northern Norway, where the Isotes lacrusti weed grows, and that as many as 40,000 have been taken at one haul. Truly, a miraculous draught of fishes! Both Ireland and the Principality afford them-the former at Lough Erne, Mackenn, Fermanagh, and Cavan, and the latter in nearly all the deep tarns and still rock pools. Leland quaintly says: "In Wales, not far from Breckenok, in Blin Senathin, which is in bredth a mile and two miles of length, and where as it is depest, thirteen fadom, it berith as the principall fisch a great numbre of Bremes, and they appeare in May in mighte sculles, so that sumtime they breke large nettes, and ons frayed appeareth not in the brym of the water that yere againe." This movement here spoken of probably is a general migratory rush preliminary to spawning, somewhat similar to that of the roach or tench at about the same season. Chiefly, however, the spawning takes place in June or July-not May-amongst rushes and weeds, each female fish accompanied by three or four males. Like the roach, at this critical season a peculiar roughness is found on the scales, and the fish has the appearance of being afflicted with measles. As many as 137,000 eggs have been estimated in the ovarium of a single female; no wonder, therefore, that some parts of the river Thames, as, for example, at Chertsey and Walton, keep up an apparently unfailing supply of bream. The bream grows rapidly in favourable water, and often attains a great size in such rivers, for instance, as the Ouse and the Oundle. Blakey asserts that it has been known to attain the enormous weight of 201b. in the north of Europe, and Bailey, in his "Angler's Instructor," mentions one of 171b. taken from the Trent. It is on reliable record that out of a lake in Sweden in 1749 there were taken at a single draught 5000 bream, weighing in the aggregate no less than 18,000lb., this, of course, bearing an average of 3lb. apiece, which, bearing in mind the immense number, 5000, is very remarkable. In English rivers, however, such weights are generally unapproached. I have, myself, nevertheless, caught many over 4lb., and one, captured in November, 1877, scaled 71b., which, by the bye, lived no less than ten hours out of its native element. The tenacity of life, indeed, in the bream has been remarked on many occasions. Gesner observes that it may be transported to a great distance, if wrapped in snow, and a piece of bread, steeped in alcohol, be placed in its mouth. This latter treatment, it may be noted, has evidently been imitated from that to which the genus homo ordinarily subjects himself during long journeys amid snow or general surrounding discomfort. The bream, or breme, has been both praised and abused. That fair angler-author, Dame Julyana Berners, the Prioress of St. Albans, says it is a "noble fysshe and a deynteous." Chaucer also refers to it as follows:- : Full many a partrich had hee on mewe, It is certain it was esteemed, for Sir W. Drysdale, writing in 1419, says that at that date a single fish was worth twenty pence, but, when a labourer found one, only sixpence was paid. He also speaks of a certain large "breme" pie which was sent from Warwickshire to a distant part of Yorkshire at a cost of 16s., which included two men three days in catching the fish, and an amount expended for "flower and spices." Nillson also says that in Sweden it was the custom to forbid the ringing of the church bells during their swarming season, lest the sound should alarm them. On the other hand, nearly all modern authors stigmatise the bream as coarse, ugly, producing little sport, and unfit to eat. Hear the words of Blakey: "The bream is a great, flat, coarse, ugly fish, strong in the water, but utterly detestable on the table;" and, further, "it sometimes attains a large size; it is then very much like a pair of bellows in shape, and much the same in flavour." How Mr. Robert Blakey knew what a "bellows' tasted like I cannot say, unless, indeed, he had tried it. Gastronomically I consider this fish of some little worth, and I have known it to be by no means despisable when filleted and fried in oil. Old Walton quotes a French proverb to the effect that "He who hath breams in his pond can make his friends welcome." However this be, the fish is not unfit for food; on the contrary, I am glad to say that a recipe of Mr. Greville Fennell, given in the Standard some time ago, has rendered bream to me very toothsome, more so, indeed, than I had anticipated. This is what that learned ichthyophagist says :— "Of these fish (bream) English waters know two sorts-the golden and the silver. The former is a highly-prized fish on the Trent and some other rivers as being equal in parts to the John Dory, and requires little previous H |