182 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



A Discourse of Fish and Fish Ponds. Done by a 

 Person of Honour, 1713, was printed, it appears, 

 from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, at one 

 time attributed to Sir Richard Steele. In the 

 second edition, 1715, however, the name of the real 

 author, the Hon. Roger North, appears on the title- 

 page. This book is concerned with fish-culture and 

 not with angling, the author's object being to provide 

 fish for the table and not for sport. 



In writing Of the Breeding of Fish, the author 

 makes an interesting statement concerning the 

 breeding of eels : 



As for Pike, Perch, Tench, Roach, &c., they are 

 observ'd to breed in almost any Waters, and very 

 numerously, only Eels never breed in perfect standing 

 Waters, and without Springs ; and in such are neither 

 found, nor increase, but by putting in ; but where 

 Springs are, they are never wanting, tho' not put in : 

 And which is most strange of all, no person ever saw 

 in an Eel the least Token of Propagation, either by 

 Melt or Spawn in them ; so that whether they breed 

 at all, and how they are produc'd, are questions 

 equally mysterious. 



North is very sanguine in regard to the profits 

 attaching to fish culture : 



But we must go further ; Ground shall be vastly 

 improv'd by Fish, and shall be intrinsically worth, 

 and yield more this way, than by any other employ- 

 ment you can give it : For suppose it Meadow of 

 2 per Acre (which is an high Value for the best 

 Meadow far from London) I will justify, that four 

 Acres in Pond shall return you every year 1000 



