CHAP. IX. THE COMPLETE AXGLF.R. 145 



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 remain- 

 ing. 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 a pond, found, of seventy or eighty large 

 Carps, not above five or six: and that he had forborn 

 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 a frog upon his head; and that he, upon that occa- 

 sion, 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 sfck 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 believe 

 the same, that he thought the other Carps, that were 

 so strangely lost, were so killed by the 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 obser- 

 vations of the Carp, and then fall upon some directions 

 how you shall fish for him. 



The age of Carps is by Sir Francis Bacon, in his Hi*- 

 L 



