OF GREAT BRITAIN. 97 



probably be an exaggeration, there is no doubt 

 that many of these fish introduced into the ponds at 

 Versailles, &c., during the reign of Louis the Four- 

 teenth (say 1 690) are either still living or were so but 

 a short time before the Revolution of 1830. Dr. 

 Smith, in his " Tour to the Continent," mentions 

 them, and observes that they had grown white 

 through age. Valenciennes refers to others in the 

 Tuileries, which would also come when called by 

 their names ; and Buffon assures us that he had 

 seen, in the fosses of the Ponchartrain, Carp which 

 were known to be upwards of a century and a half 

 old. 



A reviewer in the "Athenaeum" of the 8th of 

 August, 1863, gives the following comical account 

 of the Fontainbleau Carp : 



"Visitors to Fontainbleau will doubtless remem- 

 ber the lake adjoining the palace and its large 

 Carp population, numbering many of the most 

 ancient of that family in Europe. To those who 

 have never been at Fontainbleau we may state 

 that the lake swarms with these fish, of all ages 

 and sizes, and that it is the custom of visitors to 

 feed them with bread ; but as ordinary bread would 

 disappear in a moment among the hungry shoal, a 

 plan has been devised to give the visitors more 

 amusement by using balls of bread, about the size 

 of a man's fist, baked to a biscuit-like hardness. 

 On casting one of these balls into the lake, it is 

 immediately surrounded by scores of Carp, hungry 



ii 



