140 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



But the barbel, though he be of a fine shape, and looks big, 

 yet he is not accounted the best fish to eat, neither for his 

 wholesomeness nor his taste: but the male is reputed much 

 better than the female, whose spawn is very hurtful, as I will 

 presently declare to you. 



They flock together, like sheep, and are at the worst in April, 

 about which time they spawn, but quickly grow to be in season. 

 He is able to live in the strongest swifts of the water, and in 

 summer they love the shallowest and sharpest streams; and 

 love to lurk under weeds, and to feed on gravel against a rising 

 ground, and will root and dig in the sands with his nose like a 

 hog, and there nest himself: yet sometimes he retires to deep 

 and "swift bridges, or flood-gates, or weirs, where he will nest 

 himself amongst piles or in hollow places, and take such hold of 

 moss or weeds, that be the water never so swift, it is not able to 

 force him from the place that he contends for. This is his 

 constant custom in summer, when he and most living creatures 

 sport themselves in the sun: but at the approach of winter, 

 then he forsakes the swift streams and shallow waters, and by 

 degrees retires to those parts of the river that are quieter and 

 deeper: in which places, and I think about that time, he 

 spawns, and, as I have formerly told you, with the help of the 

 melter, hides his spawn or eggs in holes, which they both dig 

 in the gravel, and then they mutually labour to cover it with 

 the same sand, to prevent it from being devoured by other fish. 



There be such store of this fish in the river Danube, that 

 Rondeletius says they may in some places of it, and in some 

 months of the year, be taken by those that dwell near to the 

 river, with their hands, eight or ten load at a time: he says 

 they begin to be good in May, and that they cease to be so in 

 August; but it is found to be otherwise in this nation: but thus 

 far we agree with him, that the spawn of a barbel, if it be not 

 poison, as he says, yet that it is dangerous meat, and especially 

 in the month of May; which is so certain, that Gesner and 

 Gasius declare it had an ill effect upon them, even to the 

 endangering of their lives. 



This fish is of a fine cast and handsome shape, with small 



