The Compleat ^Angler 



water, and of fresh-water fish, the trout, so (except the eel) the carp 

 endures most hardness, and lives longest out of his own proper 

 element. And, therefore, the report of the carp's being 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 ; and also by some ducks, which 

 will lay eggs nine out 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. 



And it is observed that in some ponds carps will not breed, 

 especially in cold ponds ; but where they will breed they breed 

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

 no pikes or perch to devour their spawn, when it is cast upon grass, 

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

 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. 'Tis said (by Jovius, 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 con- 

 ceived and born suddenly, and being born, is but short-lived, so, on 

 the contrary, the elephant is said to be two years in his dam's belly 

 (some think he is ten years in it), and being born, grows in bigness 

 twenty years ; and 'tis observed, too, that he lives to the age of a 

 hundred years. And 'tis also observed that the crocodile is very 

 long-lived, and more than that, 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 fish ; but have been assured they are of a far greater 

 size, and in England too. 



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