56 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 



account of what takes place there every three 

 years : " All the able-bodied men of the country- 

 side are engaged for a certain day in October to 

 meet at one of the ponds, that on the highest 

 level being taken first. The sluices are opened 

 three days previously, and the water allowed to 

 gradually run off, leaving that bed of deep mud 

 which seems to be one of the necessaries of carp 

 existence. When there is only a thin rill of 

 water left trickling down the centre of the erst- 

 while pond, the fishing begins. On all sieves the 

 carp lie floundering, panting, gasping on the 

 expanse of mud ; in some places they are two 

 or three deep on top of one another. Though 

 the quantity of carp in these ponds is something 

 extraordinary, they do not seem to suffer indi- 

 vidually from their great numbers, for the fish are 

 remarkably fine and heavy. The men wade 

 through the mud, catching the carp by the gills, 

 and flinging them on to the bank. There they 

 are weighed by men who have come with carts 

 from the nearest town to buy the fish, and, after 

 the weighing, the carp are packed amongst straw 

 in the carts as tightly as possible. When the 

 carts are full, they return to the town, and the 

 carp are then placed in tanks. A carp takes 

 a good deal of killing, and though being tightly 

 packed in straw for a whole day, and jolted down- 



