106 ANGLING. 



near Frankfort- on- the- Oder, and weighed seventy 

 pounds, with a length of nearly nine feet. In 

 certain lakes of Germany individuals are occasion- 

 ally taken of the weight of thirty or forty pounds ; 

 and Pallas relates that they occur in the Wolga 

 five feet long. The fecundity of these fishes is 

 very great, and their numbers consequently would 

 soon become excessive, but for the many enemies 

 by which their spawn is attacked. No fewer than 

 700,000 eggs have been found in the ovaria of a 

 single carp, and that by no means of large size. 

 Their growth is also very rapid. This fish breeds 

 more freely in ponds than in rivers, although those 

 of the latter are more esteemed. Angling for 

 carp requires, according to Walton, " a very large 

 measure of patience." The haunts of this fish in 

 the winter months are the broadest and least 

 disturbed part of rivers, where the bottom is soft 

 and muddy ; but in summer it usually lies in deep 

 holes, near some scour, under roots of trees, and 

 beneath hollow banks, or in the neighbourhood of 

 beds of aquatic weeds. In ponds they thrive best 

 in a rich marl or clayey soil, where they have the 

 benefit of shade from an overhanging grove of trees. 

 Small carp bite eagerly, but the larger and more 

 experienced fish are deceived with difficulty. The 

 rod should be of good length, the line strong, 

 furnished with a quill float, and ending in a few 

 lengths of the best silk-worm gut. The hook is 

 proportioned to the size of the bait, and a single 

 shot is fixed about twelve inches above it. " Three 

 rods," says Daniel, " may be employed ; one with 



