CHAP. IX. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 233 



byJovius* who hath writ of fishes, that in the lake 

 Lurian in Italy, Carps have thriven to be more than 

 fifty pounds weight; which is the more probable, 

 for, as the bear is conceived, and born suddenly,- 

 and, being born, is but short-lived ; so, on the con- 

 trary, the elephant is said to be two years in his 

 clam's belly, some think he is ten years in it, and 

 being born, grows in bigness twenty years ; and it 

 is observed too, that he lives to the age of an hundred 

 years. And it is also observed, that the crocodile is 

 very long-lived ; and (more than tha<) 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 a goodly iish ; but have been assured there are,, 

 of a far greater size, and in England toot. 



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 sliould 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 gentleman of tried honesty, 

 that lie 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 

 bein^ near to them it was impossible they should 

 be stole 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 they might do so, he had, as the rule is, put 

 in three melters for one spawner he has, I say, 

 after three or four years, found neither a young nor 

 old Carp remaining. And the like I have known, 

 of one that has almost watched the pond, and, at a 



* Paulin Jovius, an Italian historian, of very doubtful authority : he 

 lived in the 16th century; and wrote a small tract De Romanis Piscibus. 

 He died at Florence, 1552. 



}- The author of the Angler's sure Guide says, that he has taken Carp 

 above twenty-six inches long, in rivers; and adds, that they are ofteft 

 feen in England above thirty inches long. 



