OF GREAT BRITAIN. 119 



the fishermen, it is said, not unfrequently provide 

 themselves with hoop landing-nets which they 

 place near the Barbel and with a pole literally 

 push them in. Shoals sometimes collect under the 

 shelter of a sunken punt or other tidal obstruction, 

 lying" one over the other as closely as they can 

 pack, and when thus congregated are often taken 

 by being' 4 hooked foul." I have also been assured 

 that boys and others who are good swimmers will 

 dive into the water and take them with the hand 

 from under the banks and holes. 



Barbel are numerous in many parts of the 

 world; but their natural habitat appears to be 

 the warmer climates of Europe, and it is stated 

 by Cuvier that in localities favourable to them 

 they will grow to 10 feet long. They are plen- 

 tiful in the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, and 

 the Weser, in almost all the rivers flowing into 

 the Black Sea, and in the Volga, where they 

 attain the weight of 40 and 50 Ibs. In this country 

 the usual weight does not exceed lolbs. ; but spe- 

 cimens have been occasionally taken as large as 

 15 Ibs., and one is even chronicled as having been 

 caught in the River Lea which weighed 19 Ibs. 

 Such a leviathan must have taxed both the patience 

 and the muscles of his captor if, indeed, he was 

 taken by rod and line as the Barbel is exceedingly 

 strong and makes a powerful fight, showing as 

 much sport, though in a dogged sullen sort of way, 

 as almost any fish of the same size except perhaps 



