12*3 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Value Docility Longevity. 



crease, (for the roe when taken out has frequently 

 been fount? to weigh more than the fish,) are the 

 most valuable of all fish tor the stocking of ponds ; 

 and if the breeding and feeding of them were 

 better understood, and more practised, the ad- 

 vantages resulting from them would be very 

 great. A pond stocked with these fish would be- 

 come as valuable to its possessor as a garden. 

 By being constantly fed they may be rendered so 

 f.uniliar as always to come to the side of tin* 

 pond where they are kept for food. Dr. Smith, 

 speaking of the Prince of Comic's seat at Chan- 

 tilly, in his ' Tour to the Continent,' says, " The 

 most pleasing things about it were the immense 

 shoals of very large carp, silvered over with age, 

 like silver fish, and perfectly tame, so that, when 

 any passengers approached their watery habita- 

 tion, they used to come to the shore in such num- 

 bers as to heave each other out of the water, beg- 

 ging for bread, of which a quantity was always 

 kept at hand on purpose to feed them ; they 

 would even allow themselves to be handled." Sir 

 John Hawkins was assured by a clergy man, a 

 friend of his, that at the abbey of St. Bernard, 

 near Antwerp, he saw a carp come to the edge 

 of its pond at the whistling of the person who 

 fed it. Other wonderful stories are told of the 

 docility of this fish. 



Carp are remarkable for their longevity. Le- 

 del says, that in the ponds of Lusntia, there are 

 carp two hundred years old. Button declares, 



