28 BARBEL. 



barbules or beards with which the mouth is furnished. Ausonius speaks of the Barbel as 

 occurrino- in the river Saravus, the modern Sarre, which joins the Moselle a tew miles above 

 Trien. 



"Tuque per obliqui fauces vexate Saravi, 

 Qua bis tema fremunt scopulosis ostia pilis, 

 Cum defluxisti famae majoris in amnem 

 Liberior laxos exerces, Barbe, ratatus; 

 Tu melior pejore aevo." (Id. x. 90 — qj.) 



"And thou, O Barbel, harassed by the narrow passes of the winding Sara\-us after thou hast descended a 



river of greater fame (Mosella) more freely dost exercise spacious swimmings." 



According to the above authority the Barbel is a more acceptable article of diet when 

 old — iiiclior pcjorc aroo ; its flesh, however, is not generally held in high esteem, though it has 

 been for long, and is now, protected by statute law. Amongst the piscatory- restrictions of 

 Queen Elizabeth's reign it is enacted that anyone taking Barbel less than twelve inches shall 

 "pay twenty shillings, and give up the fish so wrongfully taken, and the net or engine so 

 ^^Tongfully used." In France the Barbel is more esteemed as food than amongst ourselves; 

 at Tours and other inland places, situated on rivers, as Dr. Badham remarks, ' Lcs trois 

 Barbcaux'' is a well-known sign, and an abundant supply is always ready for noces et festins 

 in water-cages under the bridge. 



The Barbel is common in the Danube, the Rhine, and in other rivers in the warm 

 latitudes of Europe, where it grows to a large size, and occasionally attains a weight, it 

 is said, of fort)- or even fift}- pounds ; in this countr}- a Barbel of fifteen pounds would be 

 considered a very large fish. The food of the Barbel is partly of an animal and partly of 

 a vegetable nature; its principal food, during those months when it is active, consists of the 

 larvae of various insects, worms and small fish. It generally keeps near the bottom of the 

 river, and probably uses its four mouth-feelers or barbules as instruments of touch, to enable 

 the fish to detect the nature of its food ; these feelers are abundantly supplied with nerves, 

 as indeed is the case in other fish similarly provided. 



Anglers generally use ground bait to attract the Barbel to the spots w'here they intend 

 to fish some hours previously. I have no experience of Barbel -fishing, but those who have 

 been so fortunate speak of this sport, as pursued in a punt on the Thames, as most 

 amusing. Mr. F. Buckland recommends it especially to ladies. Mr. ]\Ianley, in his Notes on 

 Fish and Fishing, is free to confess that he enjoys a good day's Icgcr fishing for Barbel to 

 any other day's fishing '"within reach of ordinar}-, or even extraordinan,- mortals." The 

 Barbel I believe is exclusively, in this countn,- at least, a river fish, but it is not found in 

 all rivers. The Thames supplies the most abundant and largest fish ; in the neighbourhood 

 of Walton and Weybridge, two hundred and eight}' pounds' weight of Barbel are said to 

 have been taken by a single rod in one day. The Trent also aftbrds excellent fish. It 

 does not, I believe, occur in the Severn. 



The Barbel is a strong and cunning fish, "so lust}" and cunning" — to quote from the 

 Complete Angler — "as to endanger the breaking of the angler's line, by running his head 

 forcibly towards any covert, or hole, or bank, and then striking at the line to break it off 

 with his tail." I do not know whether this has been verified by modem anglers, but Mr. 

 F. Buckland writes, "When a Barbel is hooked, he always endeavours to strike at the line 

 with his tail to break it." Dame Juliana Bemers says of the Barbel, in her own quaint 

 language, "It is an evil fysshe to take, for he is so strongly enarmyd in the mouth, that 

 there may no weake harnesse holde him." 



The Barbel spawns in May and June. Yarrell states that the ova, amounting to seven 

 or eight thousand in a full-sized female, are deposited on the gravel and covered by the 



