50 FISHES AND FISHING. 



many years ; for since a road has been made beyond the 

 receiving house, the annoyance of the questions of 

 curious promenaders, and the hosts of blackguard boys 

 looking out to see what they can steal, and the state 

 of the water, effectually prevented me from doing so ; 

 independent of which, the fine roach which used to be 

 there, are supplanted by a sort of hybrid, apparently 

 between a crusian carp and a roach, or a bream and 

 a roach ; they are extremely numerous, may be taken 

 in any number, and from being very bony, are useless 

 when caught. It would be an excellent plan to turn 

 two or more pike in, of a good size, to fatten upon 

 these myriads of fish, which eat the food that ought 

 to support more valuable kinds ; but in placing pike 

 therein, care should be taken to have all of one sex, 

 otherwise, the water would soon swarm with young 

 pike ; and as the large ones should only be put there 

 for twelve months or so, the state of celibacy during 

 that period would not injure the fish ; when these 

 were fat, they might be caught, and others placed to 

 undergo the same process. 



The fecundity of fish is truly astonishing. Pro 

 fessor Blumenbach states, that there are more than 

 two hundred thousand eggs in a carp. M. Petit found 

 nearly three hundred and fifty thousand in a tench, 

 three hundred thousand in a perch, twenty-five thou 

 sand in a pike, above fifty thousand in a roach, sixty 



