THE FOURTH DAY. 



(Continued.) 



CHAPTER XIV. 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE BARBEL, AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM. 



Pise. The Barbel is so called, says Gesner, by reason of 

 his barb or wattels at his mouth, which are under his nose 

 or chaps. He is one of those leather-mouthed fishes that I 

 told you of, that does very seldom break his hold if he be 

 once hooked : but he is so strong, that he will often break 

 both rod and line, if he proves to be a big one. 1 



But the barbel, though he be of a fine shape, and looks 

 big, yet he is not accounted the best fish to eat, neither for 

 his wholesomeness nor his taste : but the male is reputed 

 much better than the female, whose spawn is very hurtful, 

 as I will presently declare to you. 



They flock together like sheep, and are at the worst in 

 April, about which time they spawn, but quickly grow to be 

 in season. He is able to live in the strongest swifts of the 

 water, and in summer they love the shallowest and sharpest 

 streams; and love to lurk under weeds, and to feed on 

 gravel against a rising ground, and will root and dig in the 



1 The average size of barbel caught in the river Thames or Lea, is from 

 one to three pounds, but they are occasionally found of eight or ten pounds' 

 weight. Mr. . Yarrell says, the largest he finds on record weighed fifteen 

 and a half pounds. They are very abundant about Shepperton and Walton, 

 where as many as from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty 

 have been taken in one day. ED. 



