1 S3 THE COMMON CARP. 



familiar as always to come to the side of the pond 

 where they are kept for food. Dr. Smith, speaking 

 of the Prince of Conde's seat at Chantilly, says, 

 " The most pleasing things about it were the im- 

 mense shoals of very large Carp, silvered over with 

 age, like silver fish, and perfectly tame, so that, when 

 any passengers approached their watery habitation, 

 they used to come to the shore in such numbers as to 

 heave each other out of the water, beg-dns: for 

 bread, of which a quantity was always kept at hand 

 on purpose to feed them. They would even allow 

 themselves to be handled *." — Sir John Hawkins 

 was assured by a clergyman, a friend of his, that at 

 the abbey of St. Bernard, near Antwerp, he saw a 

 Carp come to the edge of its pond at the whistling 

 of the person who fed it. 



Carp are very long-lived : the pond in the garden 

 of Emanuel College, Cambridge, contained a Carp 

 that had been an inhabitant more than seventv 

 years ; and Gesner has mentioned an instance of 

 one that was a hundred years old. They are also 

 extremely tenacious of life, and will live for a great 

 length of time out of water. An experiment has 

 been made by placing a Carp in a net, well wrap- 

 ped up in wet moss, (the mouth only remaining 

 out,) and then hanging it up in a cellar or some cool 

 place. — The fish in this situation is to be frequently 

 fed with white bread and milk, and is besides to be 

 often plunged in water. Carp thus managed have 

 been known, not only to live above a fortnight, 



* Sketch of a Tour to the Continent. 



