THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 145 



frog upon his head ; and that he, upon that occasion, caused 

 his pond to be let dry : and I say, of seventy or eighty Carps, 

 only found five or six in the said pond, and those very sick and 

 lean, and with every one a frog sticking so fast on the head of 

 the said Carps, that the frog would not be got off without 

 extreme force, or killing. And the gentleman that did affirm 

 this to me, told me he saw it ; and did declare his belief to be, 

 and I also beb'eve the same, that he thought the other Carps, 

 that were so strangely lost, were so killed by frogs, and then 

 devoured.* 



And a person of honour, now living in Worcestershire^ 

 assured me he had seen a necklace, or collar, of tadpoles, hang 

 like a chain, or necklace of beads, about a Pike's neck, and to 

 kill him : whether it were for meat or malice, must be, to me, 

 a question. 



But I am fallen into this discourse by accident, of which I 

 might say more, but it has proved longer than I intended, and 

 possibly may not to you be considerable : I shall therefore give 

 you three or four more short observations of the Carp, arid then 

 fall upon some directions how you shall fish for him. 



The age of Carps is, by Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of 

 Life and Death, observed to be but ten years ; yet others think 

 they live longer. Gesner says, " A Carp has been known to 

 live in the Palatinate above a hundred years. "J But most 

 conclude, that, contrary to the Pike, or Luce, all Carps are the 

 better for age and bigness. The tongues of Carps are noted to 

 be choice and costly meat, especially to them that buy them : 

 but Gesner says, " Carps have no tongue like other fish, but a 

 piece of flesh-like fish in their mouth, like to a tongue, and 

 should be called a palate :" but it is certain it is choicely good, 

 and that the Carp is to be reckoned amongst those leather- 

 mouthed fish which, I told you, have their teeth in their throat ; 

 and for that reason he is very seldom lost by breaking his hold, 

 if your hook be once stuck into his chaps. 

 . I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the Carp lives 

 but ten years : but Janus Dubravius has writ a book Of Fish 

 and Fish Ponds, || in which he says, that " Carps begin to 



* It would be wrong to deny such direct testimony, but it appears 

 improbable that frogs could, if they were so inclined, succeed in killing 

 Carp. J. R. 



f Mr. Fr. Ru. 



i Lately, namely, in one of the daily papers for the month of August, 

 1732, an article appeared, purporting, that in the basin at Kmanuel 

 College, Cambridge, a Carp was then living that had been in the water 

 thirty-six years, which, though it had lost one eye, knew, and would 

 constantly approach its feeder. 



Gesner is wrong in this ; for the " piece of flesh-like fish " is undoubt- 

 edly the tongiie, and not the palate of the fish. J. R, 



II Vide t ante. p. 1M, &r 



K 



