THE PRUSSIAN OR CRUCIAN CARP. 39 



as food for the Jack and Pike : large Eels are also 

 fond of them 3 you may bait trimmers, night-lines, and 

 hooks with the Crucians, to lay in ponds, moats, pits 

 or canals, with some success, when you cannot get 

 Roach, Dace, or Gudgeon, but I never found them a 

 good bait in a river. These Fish breed, and are very 

 numerous, in many ponds round London ; they begin 

 to feed in April, and continue until Michaelmas. You 

 may take them either with a blood worm, or a 

 red worm, gentles, or paste, being a hungry bold- 

 biting Fish, and they will take a bait at almost any 

 time of the day : use a gut or horse-hair line, small 

 quill float, with a No. 10 or 11 hook, and fish at or near 

 the bottom. Chewed bread is good ground-bait for 

 Crucian or Prussian Carp : they will sometimes take the 

 bait on the surface of the water, or a few inches below, 

 between, or just hanging over weeds. When you see or 

 feel a bite, strike immediately. Angling for Crucian 

 Carp is well adapted for the young Angler to practise 

 himself with, preparatory to more noble game. 



Remarks on the Prussian or Crucian Carp. 



The Prussian or Crucian Carp, naturalists say, were 

 introduced into this country about a hundred years 

 since, from Prussia or the North of Germany, where 

 they are very numerous. They differ very much from 

 the common Carp, being much flatter and thinner in 

 the body 5 their scales are also more of a silvery 

 than a golden hue, and they want the barbs or wattles 

 at the nose, which all common Carp have 5 they breed, 



