The Pike is a very long-lived fish. In the year 1497, one was caught at Heilbrun, in Swabia, to which was affixed a brazen ring, with the following words engraved on it in Greek characters: “I am the fish, which was first of all put into this lake, by the hands of the governor of the universe, Frederick the Second, the fifth of October, 1230.” [Illustration: THE PERCH, (_Perca fluviatilis_,)] SELDOM grows to any great size; yet we have an account of one which 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 colours, the Perch vies with the gaudiest inhabitants of the waters; the back glows with the deep reflections of the brightest emeralds, divided by five broad black stripes; the abdomen imitates the tints of the opal and mother-of-pearl; and the ruby hue of the fins completes an assemblage of colours most harmonious and elegant. It is a gregarious fish, and is caught in several rivers of these islands; the flesh is firm, delicate, and much esteemed. It is generally believed that a pike will not attack a full-grown Perch: he is deterred from so doing by the spiny or dorsal fin on the back, which this fish always erects at the approach of an enemy. Perch are so voracious, that, if an expert angler happens to find a shoal of them, he may catch every one. If, however, a single fish escape that has felt the hook, all is over; as this fish becomes so restless, as soon to occasion the whole shoal to leave the place. Perch are so bold, that they are generally the first fish caught by a young angler; they will also soon learn to take bread thrown into the water to feed them. A large-sized Perch weighs about three pounds; but generally the Perches caught in ponds do not exceed eight or ten ounces in weight. [Illustration: THE BASSE, OR SEA PERCH, (_Labrax lupus_,)] IS found in abundance on our southern coasts, and is still more common in the Mediterranean. It has one long dorsal fin, like the ruffe. The flesh of this fish is highly esteemed. The Climbing Perch, (_Anabas scandens_,) a native of the fresh waters of India, possesses a very singular apparatus for enabling it to quit the water, and pass a considerable time on dry ground. This consists of a curiously folded portion of thin bone on each side of the head near the gills, in the cavities of which a good deal of water is contained; this keeps the gills in a moist state while the fish is out of the water, and thus enables it to breathe in the air. This fish is said to employ its singular power of quitting the water for the purpose of climbing trees, although what it expects to gain by so doing is quite unknown. Its power of climbing has been denied by some naturalists, but Daldorf says that he once caught one which had clambered to a height of six feet on the stem of a palm, and was in the act of going still higher. [Illustration: THE POPE, OR RUFFE. (_Acerina cernua._)]