CHAPTER IX 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE CARP ; WITH DIRECTIONS 

 HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 



[jfourtb 3Dag] 



Pise. The Carp is the queen of rivers ; a stately, a good, 

 and a very subtle fish ; that was not at first bred, nor 

 hath been long in England, but is now naturalised. 

 It is said, they were brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, 

 a gentleman that then lived at Plumsted in Sussex, a 

 county that abounds more with fish than any in this 

 nation. 



You may remember that I told you Gesner says there 

 are no pikes in Spain ; and doubtless there was a time, 

 about a hundred or a few more years ago, when there 

 were no carps in England, as may seem to be affirmed by 

 Sir Richard Baker, in whose Chronicle you may find these 

 verses : 



Hops and turkeys, carps and beer, 

 Came into England all in a year. 



And doubtless as of sea-fish the herring dies soonest 

 out of the water, and of fresh-water fish, the trout, so, 

 except the eel, the carp endures most hardness, and lives 

 longest out of his own proper element. And, therefore, 

 the report of the carp's being brought out of a foreign 

 country into this nation is the more probable. 



Carps and loaches are observed to breed several months 

 in one year, which pikes and most other fish do not. 

 And this is partly proved by tame and wild rabbits ; 



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