134 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Seldom eaten but by the poorer sort. 



. . , , -. 



and that in a collection at Dresden, and as other 

 writers make no mention of this fish, the length 

 of its fins was probably the effect of accident, or 

 a trick of some vender of natural curiosities. 



The barbel is so extremely coarse as to have 

 been overlooked by the ancients ; yet Pliny, in 

 mentioning one reported by Mutianus to have 

 been caught in the Red Sea, that weighed four 

 score pounds, exclaims, " Oh ! what a price he 

 would have borne among our gluttons here 

 with us." These fish are the worst and coarsest 

 of fresh water fish, and are seldom eaten but by 

 the poorer sort of people, who sometimes boil 

 them with a bit of bacon to give them a relish. 

 Their roe is very noxious, and consequently may 

 affect some who eat it with vomiting, &,c. 



They frequent the still and deep parts of rivers, 

 and live in society, rooting like swine with their 

 noses in the soft banks. The barbel is so tame 

 as to suffer itself to be taken by the hand ; and 

 people have been known to take numbers by 

 diving for them. In summer they move about 

 during night in search of food ; but toward au- 

 tumn, and during winter, some insist that they 

 confine themselves to the deepest holes ; but this, 

 is erroneous, as the fishermen would take them 

 with nets at that season as well as other fish, if 

 they were then in the water ; but they are always 

 found in rivers near the sea. 



If there be any difference in the taste of the 

 flesh they are most in season the latter end of 



