CHAPTER IX.

OBSERVATIONS OF THE CARP, WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM.

PISCATOR.

THE Carp is the queen of rivers; a stately, a good, and a very subtle fish, that was not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now naturalized. It it said, they were brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, a gentleman that then lived at Plumsted, in Sussex, a county that abounds more with this fish than any in this nation.

You may remember that I told you, Gesner says there are no Pikes in Spain; and doubtless there was a time, about a hundred or a few more years ago, when there were no Carps in England, as may seem to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, in whose Chronicle you may find these verses:

Hops and Turkies, Carps and Beer,

Came into England all in a year.

And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies soonest out of the water, and of fresh-water fish the Trout, so, except the Eel, the Carp endures most hardness, and lives longest out of his own proper element. And therefore, the report of the Carp's being brought out of a foreign country into this nation is the more probable.

Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several months in one year, which Pikes and most other fish

do not. And this is partly proved by tame and wild rabbits; as also by some ducks, which will lay eggs nine of the twelve months; and yet there be other ducks that lay not longer than about one month. And it is the rather to be believed, because you shall scarce or never take a male Carp without a melt, or a female without a roe or spawn, and for the most part very much, and especially all the summer season: and it is observed, that they breed more naturally in ponds than in running waters, if they breed there at all; and that those that live in rivers, are taken by men of the best palates to be much the better meat.

And it is observed, that in some ponds Carps will not breed, especially in cold ponds; but where they will breed, they breed innumerably: Aristotle and Pliny say six times in a year, if there be no Pikes nor Perch to devour their spawn when it is cast upon grass, or flags, or weeds, where it lies ten or twelve days before it be enlivened.

The Carp, if he hath water-room and good feed, will grow to a very great bigness and length: I have heard, to be much above a yard long. 'Tis said by Jovius, who hath writ of fishes, that in the lake Larian, in Italy, Carps have thriven to be more than fifty pounds weight; which is the more probable, for as the Bear is conceived and born suddenly, and being born is but short lived; so, on the contrary, the Elephant is said to be two years in his dam's belly, some think he is ten years in it, and being born, grows in bigness twenty years; and 'tis observed too. that he lives to the age of a hundred years. And 'tis

also observed, that the Crocodile is very long-lived; and more than that, that all that long life he thrives in bigness; and so I think some Carps do, especially in some places, though I never saw one above twentythree inches, which was a great and a goodly fish; but have been assured there are of a far greater size, and in England too.

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Now, as the increase of Carps is wonderful for their number; so there is not a reason found out, I think by any, why they should breed in some ponds, and not in others of the same nature for soil and all other circumstances: and as their breeding, so are their decays also very mysterious. I have both read it, and been told by a gentleman of tried honesty, that he has known sixty or more large Carps put into several ponds near to a house, where by reason of the stakes in the ponds, and the owner's constant being near to them, it was impossible they should be stolen away from him and that when he has, after three or four years, emptied the pond, and expected an increase from them by breeding young ones,-for that they might do so, he had, as the rule is, put in three melters for one spawner, he has, I say, after three or four years, found neither a young nor old Carp remaining. And the like I have known of one that has almost watched the pond, and at a like distance of time, at the fishing of a pond, found, of seventy or eighty large Carps not above five or six: and that he had forborne longer to fish the said pond, but that he saw in a hot day in summer, a large Carp swim near the top of the water with a frog upon his head, and that he upon

that occasion caused his pond to be let dry: and I say, of seventy or eighty Carps, only found five or six in the said pond, and those very sick and lean, and with every one a frog sticking so fast on the head of the said Carps, that the frog would not be got off without extreme force or killing. And the gentleman that did affirm this to me, told me he saw it, and did declare his belief to be, and I also believe the same,-that he thought the other Carps that were so strangely lost, were so killed by frogs, and then devoured.

* Mr. Fr. Ru.

And a person of honour now living, in Worcestershire,* assured me he had seen a necklace or collar of tadpoles hang like a chain or necklace of beads about a Pike's neck, and to kill him: whether it were for meat or malice, must be to me a question.

But I am fallen into this discourse by accident, of which I might say more, but it has proved longer than I intended, and possibly may not to you be considerable: I shall therefore give you three or four more short observations of the Carp, and then fall upon some directions how you shall fish for for him.

The age of Carps is by Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and Death, observed to be but ten years; yet others think they live longer. Gesner says, a Carp has been known to live in the Palatinate above a hundred years: but most conclude, that, contrary to the Pike or Luce, all Carps are the better for age and bigness. The tongues of Carps are noted to be choice and costly meat, especially to them that buy them; but Gesner says, Carps have no tongue like

other fish, but a piece of flesh-like fish in their mouth like to a tongue, and should be called a palate: but it is certain it is choicely good, and that the Carp is to be reckoned amongst those leather-mouthed fish, which I told you have their teeth in their throat; and for that reason he is very seldom lost by breaking his hold, if your hook be once stuck into his chaps.

I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the Carp lives but ten years; but Janus Dubravius has writ a book Of Fish and Fish-ponds, in which he says, that Carps begin to spawn at the age of three years, and continue to do so till thirty: he says also, that in the time of their breeding, which is in summer, when the sun hath warmed both the earth and water, and so apted them also for generation, that then three or four male Carps will follow a female: and that then, she putting on a seeming coyness, they force her through weeds and flags, where she lets fall her eggs or spawn, which sticks fast to the weeds; and then they let fall their melt upon it, and so it becomes in a short time to be a living fish: and as I told you, it is thought the Carp does this several months in the year; and most believe that most fish breed after this manner, except the Eel: and it has been observed, that when the spawner has weakened herself by doing that natural office, that two or three melters have helped her from off the weeds, by bearing her up on both sides, and guarding her into the deep. And you may note, that though this may seem a curiosity not worth observing, yet others have judged it worth their time and costs to make glass