150 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



the carp endures most hardness, and lives longest out of his 

 own proper element. And therefore the report of the carp's be- 

 ing brought out of a foreign country into this nation, is the more 

 probable. 



Carps and loaches are observed to breed several months in one 

 year, which pikes and most other fish do not. And this is partly 

 proved by tame and wild rabbits, as also by some ducks, which 

 will lay eggs nine of the twelve months, and yet there be other 

 ducks that lay not longer than about one month. And it is the 

 rather to be believed, because you shall scarce or never take a 

 male carp without a melt, or a female without a roe or spawn ; 

 and for the most part very much, and especially all the summer 

 season ; and it is observed, that they breed more naturally in 

 ponds than in running waters, if they breed there at all ; and 

 that those that live in rivers, are taken by men of the best palates 

 to be much the better meat. 



It is observed, that in some ponds carps will not breed, espe- 

 cially in cold ponds ; but where they will breed, they breed in- 

 numerably : Aristotle and Pliny say six times in a year, if there 

 be no pikes nor pearch to devour their spawn, when it is cast upon 

 grass, or flags, or weeds, where it lies ten or twelve days before 

 it be enlivened. 



The carp, if he have water room and good feed, will grow to 

 a very great bigness and length ; I have heard, to be much 

 above a yard long. It is said by Jovius,* who hath writ of fishes, 

 that in the lake Lurianf in Italy, carps have thriven to be more 



* Paulus Jovius, a physician and historian, born at Como, in Italy. He 

 wrote his first work, a treatise, De Piscibus Romanis, while studying at 

 Rome, 1523. He afterwards entered the church, and was made bishop of 

 Nucera. Disappointed of further promotion he retired to Florence, where 

 he v/rote the history of his own times, from 1494 to 1544, publislied there 

 in three vols, fol., 1556. His style is not inelegant, and he had a ready 

 wit; but he was credulous, licentious, and sycophantic. He died 1553. 

 He must not be confounded with Paulus Jovius, another bishop of Nocera, 

 in 15S6, who was also a man of letters. — im. Ed. 



t The former commentators on Walton have strangely overlooked an error 

 of our author in calling the lake Lurian. It is the Larian lake that Jo- 

 vius speaks of, as I see in a copy of his treatise before me,{Francfcri.\b'i4.) 

 The Larian is the modern Lago di Como,- which, under the former name, 



