268 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



'Tis noted that the tench and eel love mud, 

 and the carp loves gravelly ground, and in the hot 

 months to feed on grass. You are to cleanse your 

 pond, if you intend either profit or pleasure, once 

 every three or four years, especially some ponds, 

 and then let it lie dry six or twelve months, both to 

 kill the water-reeds, as water-lilies, candocks, 1 reate, 2 

 and bulrushes, that breed there ; and also that as 

 these die for want of water, so grass may grow in 

 the pond's bottom, which carps will eat greed- 

 ily in all the hot months if the pond be clean. 

 The letting your pond dry and sowing oats in the 

 bottom is also good, for the fish feed the faster ; 

 and being sometime let dry, you may observe what 

 kind of fish either increases or thrives best in that 

 water, for they differ much both in their breeding 

 and feeding. 



Lebault also advises that if your ponds be not 

 very large and roomy, that you often feed your fish 

 by throwing in to them chippings of bread, curds, 

 grains, or the entrails of chickens, or of any fowl 

 or beast that you kill to feed yourselves ; for these 

 afford fish a great relief. He says that frogs and 

 ducks do much harm, and devour both the spawn 

 and the young fry of all fish, especially of the carp : 

 and I have, besides experience, many testimonies 

 of it. But Lebault allows water-frogs to be good 

 meat, especially in some months, if they be fat ; 

 but you are to note that he is a Frenchman, and we 



1 A species of dog-grass growing in rivers. 



2 The sedge or water-flag. 



