298 



BARBEL. 



substances on which they feed. The food -which 

 these floods bring them consists of snails, leeches, and 

 other small animals, which are on these occasions 

 either washed from the land, or lose the command 

 of themselves in the water ; and to these they have 

 no objection to add the fry of other fishes, or indeed 

 any living or recently dead animal which is small 

 enough for their swallowing it. Some allege that they 

 use their prominen snout for poking in the bottom 

 of the water for food ; but that is not very likely, 

 neither is it very well ascertained. 



Bloch mentions that they are fond of the flesh of 

 the larger animals, and even of that of human beings. 

 In corroboration of this, he mentions a feast of Turks 

 and Turkish horses which the barbel of the Danube 

 had, when, in 1683, the renowned John Sobieski of 

 Poland raised the siege of Verona, which had been 

 invested and all but taken by the Turkish army 

 under Kara Mustapha. The valour with which 

 Sobieski, with his Poles and Germans, set upon the 

 Turks was somewhat unexpected ; the rout was in 

 consequence rapid and disorderly, and men and horses 

 dashed or were driven pell-mell into the river. Their 

 bodies, says the ichthyologist above-named, were in 

 great part eaten by the barbel ; and he adds : " Avcc 

 un nourriture si varite, il liest pas etonnant que le 

 barbeau cruissejbrt vite ;" and unquestionably a much 

 more formidable fish than a barbel might have grown 

 very fat, if it had had a Turk and his horse every 

 morning for breakfast. 



There is only one objection to this story, and that 

 is, it does not appear to be very possible. That a 

 barbel, which is, as we have said, very indiscriminate 

 in its feeding, will eat any animal which it can swallow, 

 without inquiry as to whether it be beast or man, 

 Turk or Christian, there is not the least doubt. But 

 then, that a barbel could swallow a Turk and his 

 horse, or any of the two singly, is rather too much 

 for the reader to swallow ; at least, if he swallow 

 that, he may swallow any thing. Yet, if the barbel 

 did not swallow the carcases upon that occasion, it is 

 not easy to see how they could grow fast and fat 

 upon them. The teeth of the barbel are not in anv 

 degree trenchant, so that it can neither bite nor 

 masticate. The teeth, like those of most fishes, are 

 merely prehensive ; they catch food entire, but cannot 

 divide it ; and therefore, before John Sobieski could 

 have fattened barbel for the epicures of Vienna with 

 Turks and Turkish horses, he must have literally 

 hewed them to mince meat before he drove them into 

 the Danube. That the small animals upon which 

 barbel feed should have attacked the dead bodies 

 that the barbel should have attacked them in return 

 and thus eaten the Turks and Turkish horses at 

 second-hand may have been true, because not im- 

 possible ; but the eating of the Turks and horses 

 at first-hand not being the one, could not be the 

 other. 



Barbel are ground or bottom fishes, and as such, 

 they spawn in the warm season, and in the places 

 which they inhabit. April or May, or even later in 

 the season, according as the warm weather is longer 

 in setting in, is the time for them. They are said 

 not to be productive till four or five years old ; 

 and it is probable that the same individuals spawn 

 only once in three or four years. There is no direct 

 evidence of that being the fact, because we know very 

 little of the habits of fish ; and when we speak about 

 their bringing forth their millions of young every 



year, we speak from what we know of land animals 

 whose young are few. There is evident proof, how- 

 ever, of the fact, that, in those rivers where they 

 abound, barbel may be had in season at all times of 

 the year, though they are best about a month or six 

 weeks before the time of spawning. 



One must naturally suppose that the summer sun 

 has much less influence upon barbel, and other bottom 

 fishes, than upon those which come nearer to the 

 surface upon trout, for instance. Now, it is not 

 clearly ascertained that trout spawn every season ; 

 and though they do, it certainly takes the whole action 

 of the summer's heat to bring their roes and melts to 

 maturity ; for although, according to the different 

 condition of the individuals, the operation extends 

 over a considerable period, yet autumn is the average ; 

 and the eggs are placed in the shallows, so that they 

 have the action of the sun early in the season. Barbel, 

 on the other hand, deposit their eggs in the early part 

 of the summer, and deposit them at the bottom. They 

 are no doubt placed among stones or currents ; but 

 they are never placed where the water is very shallow, 

 and it is not very well known at what period the young 

 make their appearance. 



The season of repose in barbei, or whether even 

 they have such a season, has not been ascertained. 

 Eels, which are much more ground fishes than barbel, 

 hybernate by burying themselves in the mud, but eels 

 are at all times mud-fishes ; and, unless when, as 

 passengers on their migrations, they are not found on 

 those gravelly and stony bottoms which are the 

 favourite resorts of barbel. But eels, like barbel, are 

 much more abundant in temperate countries than in 

 cold ; and when they hybernate, they, if possible, 

 resort to the estuaries, and bury themselves in the 

 mud there. 



The size which the barbel attains depends a good 

 deal on the climate which they inhabit, and especially 

 on the length and severity of the winter in that climate. 

 They are said not to attain so large a size in the rivers 

 of the north of Germany as in those of England ; and 

 not so large in England as in countries farther to the 

 south. Three feet, and from fifteen to eighteen 

 pounds weight, is a large barbel in England ; but in 

 the south of Europe they grow to the length of six 

 fcet, and are heavy in proportion. Like all the 

 ground fishes, they are much more tenacious of life 

 than those which inhabit nearer the surface ; the 

 action of their system appears to be slower, and their 

 flesh is whiter. In these respects, however, they are 

 inferior to the eel, though they approximate so far as 

 to show that there is a diminution both in action 

 and in the colour of the flesh, as well as more tena- 

 city of life, in proportion as the fish inhabits at a 

 greater depth in the water. 



They are taken with nets, or with a line and barbed 

 hook ; and leeches, earth-worms, or small fishes, do 

 for bait ; they bite readily, and are in consequence 

 easily caught. Bottom fishes, indeed, of all genera 

 and species, bite more readily, are caught with more 

 certainty, and appear to be much less capricious than 

 those which inhabit nearer the surface, and sport and 

 play in the water. But the probability is, that what 

 we regard as the caprice of the latter, is their liabi- 

 lity to atmospheric changes ; from which the bottom 

 fishes ate defended by the deeper stratum of water 

 which is habitually between them and the air. 



Barbel, like eels, are very subject to intestinal 

 worms, much more so than fishes which feed near the 



