BARBEL. 27 



table ; yet I have been told they eat very well 

 when baked, with veal stuffing in their belly, 

 as do the smaller size split and fried. The 

 Barbel is prized for being a game fish, afford- 

 ing excellent sport to the angler, mixed with 

 some labour and anxiety. When of a large 

 size, they are exceeding crafty, sulky, and 

 strong, struggling a long time after they are 

 hooked, often lying motionless at the bottom 

 many minutes, then running under banks, or 

 into large beds of weeds, in fact, trying every 

 possible way to get off the hook, or break 

 your line, which they certainly will effect if 

 you are deficient in skill, or your tackle is in 

 any way faulty. They are generally angled 

 for on the river Thames in boats, called punts, 

 with a stout rod, running tackle, gut line, 



who frequently, in summer, left London in the evening 1 , and 

 stopped at a village public house near the river Lea, take his 

 supper and pipe, and there remain until the people of the house 

 retired to bed, then walk to his favourite swim, and sit down 

 and wait patiently till the dawn of day enabled him to use his 

 angle rod. 



