300 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



Elbe, and the Weser ; in almost all the rivers flowing into the 

 Black Sea ; and in the Volga, where they attain the weight of 

 40 and 50 Ibs. On the banks of this river the natives make a 

 kind of fish glue or isinglass of the bladder, boiling the roe and 

 feeding their geese and poultry with it. The fish themselves 

 are sold at Astrakan at about g!. the thousand. 



The flesh of the fish, to be guilty of what sounds like a bull, 

 very much resembles that of the sturgeon, to which also, in 

 shape, it bears a strong resemblance. As is well known the 

 flesh of the sturgeon is very solid and almost meat-like, stand- 

 ing, in fact, apparently about half-way between fish and flesh. 

 I used, when living in the neighbourhood of the Thames, often 

 to see a dish of barbel on the sideboard at breakfast time, and 

 very good it was. I have not the recipe for the cooking, but 

 I know that the principal secret lies in its being baked in an 

 open dish with some cloves and perhaps other spices. When 

 cold, the liquid it was baked in became a stiff jelly, which shows 

 unmistakably the, so to speak, meaty, and probably nourishing 

 qualities of the fish. 



The barbel is a native of many parts of England, and is 

 exclusively a river fish. It abounds particularly in the Trent 

 and the Thames, in the latter being so numerous that in the 

 neighbourhood of Walton and Weybridge as much as 280 Ibs. 

 weight are said to have been taken by a single rod in one day. 



The name of Barbel is derived from the barbs, or beards, 

 at the corners of the mouth, which are given to the fish to assist 

 it in feeling its way about in deep and, consequently, more or 

 less dark waters, and probably also for the purpose of enabling 

 it to detect the nature of the substances with which it comes 

 in contact. Of the species provided with these barbs, viz., the 

 carp, tench, gudgeon, loach, and burbot, all find their food 

 principally or wholly on the bottom ; and generally the fact of 

 the fish being 'bearded ' affords a correct index to its habits. 



Thus the barbel frequents the deepest parts of pools and 

 weirs, for example, Temple Pool, just on the right hand of 

 the lock above Marlow, and New Lock, on the Harleyford side 



