210 TIIE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I. 



all that long life he thrives in bigness : and so I think some 

 carps do, especially in some places ; though I never saw one 

 above twenty-three inches, 1 which was a great and goodly 

 fish ; but have been assured there are of a far greater size, 

 and in England too. 



Now, as the increase of carps is wonderful for their 

 number, so there is not a reason found out, I think by any, 

 why they should breed in some ponds, and not in others, of 

 the same nature for soil and all other circumstances. And 

 as their breeding, so are their decays also very mysterious : 

 I have both read it, and been told by a gentleman of tried 

 honesty, that he has known sixty or more large carps put 

 into several ponds near to a house, where by reason of the 

 stakes in the ponds, and the owner's constant being near to 

 them, it was impossible they should be stolen away from 

 him : and that when 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 remaining. And the like I have known of one that 

 has 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 forborne 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 ; 2 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 



1 The author of the "Angler's Sure Guide" says, that he has taken carp 

 above twenty-six inches long, in rivers ; and adds, that they are often seen 

 in England above thirty inches long. H. The usual length is from twelve 

 to sixteen inches. ED. 



2 The same has been said of the Pike in ponds (see p. 194), and, if 

 credible, may hold good of other fish. Water-rats and Newts also do 

 their part, although the latter have been supposed to feed only on Tad- 

 poles, Crustacea, and worms. But the finny tribe have even more formidable 

 enemies among the aquatic carnivora, especially Water-beetles and their 

 larvce. The Dyticidw are all very voracious, particularly the DYTICUS 

 MARGINALIS, a large beetle about an inch long, which swims in the manner 

 of a frog, and is very destructive to young fish. Burmeister mentions one 



