52 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



we are acquainted, is to fry him in butter, and then 

 serve him up with rich hot shrimp sauce. In Scot- 

 land they make what is called a " water-souchy" of him; 

 but this is a flabby, wishy-washy affair altogether : the 

 flavour of the fish is lost in that of the onion, and you 

 wish in vain that you could lose the taste of the onion as 

 easily. 



(Earp Ha 



The CARP is a very handsome fish, and is very highly 

 esteemed for the table, especially on the continent. 



He is to be found in most of the ponds and rivers of 

 Europe ; but he chiefly affects those waters which have a 

 very gentle flow ; and in haunts of this kind, his flesh 

 acquires the highest degree of delicacy and gout of which 

 it is susceptible. Perhaps those fish are the best, both in 

 colour and flavour, which are taken out of lakes or ponds 

 of pure, limpid water, which is continually changed by a 

 placid current perpetually drawing through them, the 

 bottoms of which are covered with fine sand or pebbles. 

 If, in addition to these advantages, the water which drains 

 into these ponds or lakes from the surrounding lands, fall 

 over a shingly or gravelly soil, the carp will be of 

 splendid quality, and become a most delicious fish. 



The carp will live to a very great age ; and in favourable 

 situations will attain a very large size. It is said that the 

 big old carp which are to be found in the fosse of the 

 chateau at Fontainebleau were put in, in the time of 

 Francis I. Buffon speaks of carp in the fosse of Port- 

 chartrain which were a hundred and fifty years old, and 

 possessed all the vivacity and agility of ordinary fish. 

 Others are spoken of by some authors which had attained 

 the age of two hundred years. 



