NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 311 



procreation, as for the most part all barrel'd fish 

 do, who rises early in the infancy of the year, 

 and admires all changes that the season pre- 

 sents. 



The pike, or lucit, is a mercenary ; 

 Or anglers seem among themselves to vary. 

 He loves no streams, but hugs the silent deeps : 

 And eats all hours, and yet no house he keeps. 



THE CARP. 



The carp is a fish complicated of a moross 

 mixture, and a torpid motion, one that loves to 

 live in melancholy calms, rather than to ram- 

 ble in the rapid rivers and translucid streams. 

 Ponds and pools are generally his palaces, where 

 he loves good eating, but seldom or rarely tra- 

 vels far to fetch it ; who as seldom as any fish 

 exceeds the compass of his colony, nor ever at 

 tains to that maturity of largeness, where there's 

 rapid rivers, and swift gliding streams, as he 

 does in the lake or solitary lough. The antients 

 were of opinion, and so am I, that travel ex- 

 tenuates and lessens growth ; and that in the 

 rivers and spacious rivulets, every master fish 

 pleads a right of possession ; whereby acts of 

 hostility are hourly commenced, with the loss 

 of life to the weaker sort, at least of his habita- 



