THE COMPLETE ANGLER, 181 



hooked : but he is so strong, that he will often break both 

 rod and line, if he proves to be a big one. 



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 wholesoraeness 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 some- 

 times 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.* 



* Though the spawn of the barbel is known to be of a poisonous nature, yet 

 it is often taken by country people medicinally ; who find it at once, a most 

 powerful emetic and cathartic. And, notwithstanding what is said of the 



