234: THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



like distance of lime, at the fishing of a pond, found, 

 of seventy or eighty large Carps, not above five or 

 six : And that he had forborn longer to fish the 

 said pond, but that he saw, in a hot day in summer, 

 a large Carp swm near the top of the water with 

 a frog upon his head; and that he, upon that occa- 

 sion, caused his pond to be let dry : and I say, of 

 seventy or eighty Carps, only found five or six in 

 the said pond, and those very sick and lean, and with 

 every one a frog sticking so fast on the heal of the 

 said Carps, that the frog would not be got off without 

 extreme force or killing. And the gentleman that 

 did affirm this to me, told me he saw it ; and did 

 declare his belief to be, and I also believe the same, 

 that he thought the other Carps, that were so strangely 

 lost, were, so, killed by frogs ; and, then, devoured. 



And a person of honour, now living 1 in Worcester- 

 shire, assured me he had seen a necklace, or collar 

 of tadpoles, hang like a chain or necklace of beads 

 about a Pike's neck, and to kill him: Whether it 

 were for meat or malice ; must be, to me, a question. 



But I am fallen into this discourse by accident : 

 of which I might say more, but it has proved 

 longer than I intended, and possibly may not to you 

 be considerable : 1 shall, therefore, give you three 

 or four more short observations of the Carp, and 

 then fall upon some directions, How you shall fish 

 for him. 



The age of Carps is by Sir Francis Bacon, in 

 his History of Life and Death, observed to be but 

 ten years : yet others think they live longer. Gesner 

 says a Carp has been known to live in the Palatinate 

 above a hundred years*. But most conclude, that, 

 contrary to the Pike or Luce, all Carps are the better 

 for age and bigness. The tongues of Carps are noted 

 to be choice, and costly meat, especially to them that 



* Lately, viz. in one of the daily papers for the month of August, 1782, 

 an article appeared, purporting, that in the bason at Emanuel College 

 Cambridge, a Carp was then living that had been in that water thirty-six 

 years ; which, though it had lost one eye, knew, and would constantly 

 approach, its feeder. 



