I9O THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



lake Lurian in Italy carps have thriven to be more 

 than fifty pounds' weight ; which is the more prob- 

 able, for as the bear is conceived and born sud- 

 denly, and being born is but short-lived, so, on 

 the contrary, the elephant is said to be two years 

 in his dam's belly, some think he is ten years in 

 it, and being born grows in bigness twenty years ; 

 and 't is observed too that he lives to the age of a 

 hundred years. And 't is also observed that the 

 crocodile is very long-lived, and more than that, that 

 all that long life he thrives in bigness ; and so I 

 think some carps do, especially in some places ; 

 though I never saw one above twenty-three inches, 

 which was a great and goodly fish ; but have been 

 assured there are of a far greater size, and in Eng- 

 land too. 



Now, as the increase of carps is wonderful for 

 their number, so there is not a reason found out, 

 I think by any, why they should breed in some 

 ponds and not in others of the same nature for 

 soil and all other circumstances. And as their 

 breeding, so are their decays also very mysterious. 

 I have both read it, and been told by a gentle- 

 man of tried honesty, that he has known sixty or 

 more large carps put into several ponds near to a 

 house, where by reason of the stakes in the ponds, 

 and the owner's constant being near to them, it 

 was impossible they should be stolen away from 

 him; and that when he has after three or four 

 years emptied the pond, and expected an increase 

 from them by breeding young ones, for that 



