THE CARP. 245 



the elephant is said to be two years in his dam's belly, some 

 think he is ten years in it, and being born, grows in bigness 

 twenty years ; and it is observed too, that he lives to the 

 age of a hundred years. 2 And it is also observed, that the 

 crocodile is very long-lived, and more than that, that all 

 that long life he thrives in bigness ; and so I think some 

 carps do, especially in some places ; though I never saw one 

 above twenty-three inches, which was a great and a goodly 

 fish ; but have been assured there are of a far greater size, 

 and in England too. 



Now, as the increase of carps is wonderful for their num- 

 ber, so there is not a reason found out, I think by any, why 

 they should breed in some ponds, and not in others of the 

 same nature for soil and all other circumstances. And as 

 their breeding, so are their decays also very mysterious : I 

 have both read it, and been told by a gentleman of tried 

 honesty, that he has known sixty or more large carps put 

 into several ponds near to a house, where, by reason of the 

 stakes in the ponds, and the owner's constant being near to 

 them, it was impossible they should be stole away from him; 

 and that when he has, after three or four years, emptied the 

 pond, and expected an increase from them by breeding 

 young ones (for that they might do so, he had, as the rule 

 is, put in three melters for one spawner), he has, I say, after 

 three or four years, found neither a young nor old carp 

 remaining. And the like I have known of one that had 

 almost watched the pond, and at a like distance of time, at 

 the fishing of the pond, found, of seventy or eighty large 

 carps, not above five or six ; and that he had forborne 

 longer to fish the said pond, but that he saw, in a hot day 

 in summer, a large carp swim near the top of the water with 



