232 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



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 English will hardly be- 

 lieve him, though we know frogs are usually eaten in his coun- 

 try : however, he advises to destroy them and king-fishers out of 

 your ponds : and he advises, not to suffer much shooting at wild- 

 fowl ; for that, he says, affrightens, and harms, and destroys the 

 fish. 



Note, that carps and tench thrive and breed best when no other 

 fish is put with them into the same pond ; for all other fish de- 

 vour their spawn, or at least the greatest part of it. And note, 

 that clods of grass thrown into any pond, feed any carps in sum- 

 mer ; and that garden-earth and parsley thrown into a pond, re- 

 covers and refreshes the sick fish. And note, that when you 

 store your pond, you are to put into it two or three melters for 

 one spawner, if you put them into a breeding-pond ; but if into 

 a nurse-pond, or feeding-pond, in which they will not breed, then 

 no care is to be taken whether there be most male or female 

 carps. 



It is observed, that the best ponds to breed carps are those that 

 be stony or sandy, and are warm and free from wind, and that 

 are not deep, but have willow trees and grass on their sides, over 

 which the water does sometimes flow : and note, that carps do 

 more usually breed in marle-pits, or pits that have clean clay- 

 bottoms, or in new ponds, or ponds that lie dry a winter season, 

 than in old ponds that be full of mud and weeds. 



* In France, especially Paris, they eat only the edible frog, rana escu- 

 lenta, which is more delicate than the frogs of our waters. The prejudice 

 against eating frogs would scarcely last after tasting a well made pute des 

 grcnouilles. The agreeable authoress of Shetland and the Shetlanders 

 tells a story of a French emigri, who on being entertained by a Scotch 

 Dowager, asked leave to taste a bear-meal bannock (a coarsely baked bar- 

 ley-meal cake). Finding it not much to the liking of his cultivated palate, 

 he expressed his disgust rather strongly, which provoked his hostess to 

 retort : " Some folk eat bannocks, and some folk eat puddocks" (the 

 Scotch for frogs). — Am. Ed. 



