14 BEST'S ART OF ANGLING. 



with gravelly shoals, such as horse-ponds usually 

 have ; so that when a water takes thus to breed- 

 ing, .with a few milters and spawn ers, two or 

 three of each, a whole country may be stocked 

 in a short time. Eels and perches are of a very 

 good use to keep down the stock of fish ; for they 

 prey much upon the spawn and fry of bred fish, 

 and will probably destroy the superfluity of them. 

 As for pikes, tenches, roaches, perches, &c. they 

 are observed to breed almost in any waters, and 

 very numerously ; but eels never breed in stand- 

 ing waters that are without springs, and in such 

 are neither found, nor increase by putting in ; 

 yet where springs are they are never wanting, 

 though not put in : and, what is most strange of 

 all, no person ever saw in an eel the least token 

 of propagation, either by milt or spawn ; so that, 

 whether they breed at all, and how they are pro- 

 duced, are propositions equally mysterious, and 

 never yet clearly resolved. 



RULE II. 



FOR FEEDING FISHES, 



Observe the following remarks : 1. In a stew 

 thirty or forty carps may be kept from October 

 to March, without feeding ; and by fishing with 

 trammels or flews, in March or April, you may 

 take from your great waters to recruit your stews : 

 but you must not fail to feed all the summer, 

 from March to October again, as constantly as 

 cropped chickens are fed ; and it will prove pro- 

 fitable. 



2. The constancy and regularity of serving the 

 fish, conduce very much to their eating well and 

 thriving. 



