48 NOISES MADE BY CARP AT NIGHT. [PART I. 



become naturalized in the pond, gradually suc- 

 cumbed, as usual, to the muddiness of the water 

 caused by the Carp, it being from that cause 

 almost an impossibility to get the two to do well 

 together, unless the piece of water in which they 

 are placed have, running through it, a stream 

 sufficiently strong to carry off the mud. 



It would seem, strange to say, that we that 

 day caught every one of the large Roach which the 

 pond contained. At least, I believe that never 

 since and that must be now some twelve or fif- 

 teen years ago has a single one approaching then- 

 size been taken out of it. 



If on a fine calm summer night you visit a 

 piece of water well stocked with Carp, especially 

 if its sides be perpendicular and faced with brick, 

 and the fish be numerous in proportion to the 

 feed, you will probably hear every now and then 

 a long-drawn sucking noise, followed by one as 

 of blowing. These are occasionally so loud and 

 striking, that although I imagined them to proceed 

 from Carp, yet I could scarcely persuade myself 

 that such was the case, until I had lain down on 

 the grass, and succeeded in touching them with 

 my hand whilst in the very act of producing them. 

 They are, I have no doubt, ascribable to the 



