154 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



[REMAEKS ON THE CAEP. -Walton's natural history of the carp is 

 marked by many singular errors, into which, as usual, he was led by 

 such writers of naturalist romance as Gesner, Bacon, Dubravius, 

 Aristotle, &c. The old Angler's remarks on fishing for carp are very 

 good, and may be followed without much deviation. I shall set his 

 natural history right, and add to his instructions a few more on carp 

 fishing. The Linnsean designation for this fine-looking fish is Cyprinus 

 Carpis. Mr. Blaine, in his " Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports," describes 

 it very accurately thus : " Yellowish olive carp, with wide dorsal fin, 

 with the third ray serrated behind. It stands at the head of a numerous 

 family, characterised by a small mouth, which is without teeth, their 

 office being supplied by a bony apparatus within the throat, both above 

 and below, which, acting against each other, comminate the food ; the 

 gill membrane is three-rayed, and there is one dorsal fin only. The 

 common carp appears to be a native of the lakes, ponds, and some of 

 the large rivers of the southern parts of Europe. The year 1514 is 

 mentioned as the period when Leonard Mascal, a gentleman of Sussex, 

 naturalized the tench amongst us ; and although there is little reason to 

 doubt that this gentleman did actually bring carp with him from the 

 South, or import some, yet there is sufficient evidence from the * Boke 

 of St. Alban's ' (the earliest work on angling extant), published by 

 Wynkyn de Worde, as early as 1496, that they were then known in 

 England. The stately authoress, Juliana Barnes (Berners, or de Berners), 

 calls it a ' daynteous fish/ although scarce. This being the case, the old 

 distich (quoted by Walton in the first page of his chapter on the carp), 

 * Of carp, hops/ &c., loses its metre and its point together." I think it is 

 fairly proved that the carp is a fish exceedingly tenacious of life in 

 water and out of it. In damp moss it can be kept many days alive. In 

 its own element it may live to the age of one hundred years, but I do 

 not think it often attains that age ; and I am of opinion that it never 

 exceeds it. Mr. Blame, however, says, " The age to which carp attain 

 is very great, and several well- authenticated instances are adduced of 

 its considerably exceeding a century, at least. Many of those which 

 were introduced into the ponds at Versailles, etc., in the reign of Louis 

 the Fourteenth (say 1690), are either still living, or at least were so a 

 very short time before the French Revolution (of 1830). Dr. Smith, in 

 his ' Tour to the Continent/ mentions them, and observes that they were 

 grown white through age. Buffon assures us that he had seen, in the 

 fosses of the Ponchartrain, carp which w r ere known to be of the age of 

 one hundred and fifty years." Carp in our rivers very rarely reach the 

 weight of six pounds, and as seldom twelve pounds in our ponds. I have 

 frequently seen at Mr. Grove's shop, in New Bond-street, carp of the 

 weight of twenty pounds ; and I think I once saw one that weighed 

 twenty-eight pounds. But they were all Dutch fish. Mr. Blaine 

 remarks, " The usual length of the carp in our country is from about 

 twelve to fifteen or sixteen inches ; but we have seen them here much 

 longer, weighing twenty pounds. In warmer climates, they grow to 

 twenty, thirty, or forty pounds." Walton says, the carp breeds several 

 times in the year. I do not think so. Blaine sensibly explains the 



