5l6 FISHES. 



to the first. The same has also been observed of the carp and 

 bream. 



In Polish Prussia, and many other parts of Germany, the sale of 

 carp constitutes a part of the revenue of the nobility and gentry, so 

 that the proper management of that fish is reduced to a kind of 

 system, founded on the experience of several generations. Of the 

 methods there practised, we have an account in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1771, communicated by Mr. J.Reinhold Foster; 

 who says he has seen carp treated and maintained according to 

 those methods, " above a yard long, and of twenty-five pounds 

 weight ; T ' but had no opportunity of ascertaining their age. u In 

 the pond, however, at Charlottenburg," he adds, (t a palace be- 

 longing to the King of Prussia, I saw more than two or three hun- 

 dred carp, between two and three feet long ; and I was told by the 

 keeper they were between fifty and sixty years standing. They 

 were tame, and came to the shore in order to be fed." Mr. For- 

 ster, in this paper, also vouches for a most extraordinary circum- 

 stance ; namely, the possibility of the carp's not only living for a., 

 considerable time out of water, but of its growing fat in its 

 new element. The author has seen the experiment successfully 

 tried, and attended to the whole process, in a nobleman's house, 

 where he then resided, in the principality of Anhalt Dessau. The 

 fish being taken out of the water, is wrapped up in a large quantity 

 of wet moss, spread on a piece of net, which is then gathered into 

 a purse, in such a manner however as to allow him room to breathe. 

 The net is then plunged into water, and hung up to the cieling of a 

 cellar. At first the dipping must be repeated every three or four 

 hours, but afterwards the carp need only be plunged into the wa- 

 ter once in about six or seven hours. Bread soaked in milk is first 

 given him in small quantities. In a short time, the fish will bear 

 more, and grow fat under this seemingly unnatural treatment. 

 Mr. Daines Barrington, in a note, confirms a part of the preceding 

 account, by mentioning the practice of a certain fishmonger near 

 Clare. market, who, in the winter, frequently exposed a bushel, at 

 least, of carp and tench for sale, in the same dry vessel, for six or 

 seven hours, many of which were not sold, and yet continued in 

 health, though breathing nothing but air during the time above, 

 mentioned, for several days successively. 



[Forster* Barrington, Pertnant, 



