THE FOURTH DAY. 



CHAP. IX. Observations of the CARP, with Directions how to 

 fish for him. 



PlSCATOR. 



T^HE Carp is the Queen of Rivers : a stately, a good, and a 

 very subtle fish, that was not at first bred, nor hath been 

 long, in England, but is now naturalized. It is said, they 

 were brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, a gentleman that then 

 lived at Plumsted in Sussex, a county that abounds more with 

 this fish than any in this nation. 



You may remember that I told you, Gesner says there are 

 no Pikes in Spain ; and, doubtless, there was a time, about a 

 hundred or a few more years ago, when there were no Carps in 

 England, as may seem to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, in 

 whose Chronicle you may find these verses : 



** Hops and Turkeys, Carps and Beer, 

 Came into England all in a year." 



And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies soonest out of 

 the water, and of fresh-water fish the Trout, so, except the Eel, 

 the Carp endures most hardness, and lives longest out of his 

 own proper element ; and therefore the report of the Carp's 

 being brought out of a foreign country into this nation is the 

 more probable. 



Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several months in 

 one year, which Pikes and most other fish do not. And this 

 is partly proved by tame and wild rabbits, as also by some 

 ducks, which will lay eggs nine of the twelve months ; and yet 

 there be other ducks that lay not longer than about one month, 



