*7 



and patience which I wish to all fishers, especially to the carp angler, I 

 shall tell you with what bait to fish for him." His directions for preparing 

 the bait are clever and interesting, but of no value here, and we will pass on 

 to his recipe for cooking this "queen of rivers." "I will tell you," he quaintly 

 says, "how to make this carp, that is so curious to be caught, so curious a 

 dish of meat, as shall make him worth all your labor and patience and 

 though it is not without some trouble and charges, yet it will recompense 

 both." Here is the recipe: 



"Take a carp, alive, if possible, scour him, and rub him clean with water 

 and salt, but scale him not; then open him, and put him, with his blood and 

 his liver, which you must save when you open him, into a small pot or 

 kettle; then .take sweet marjoram, thyme, and parsley, of each half a 

 handful; a sprig of rosemary, and another of savory, bind them into two or 

 three small bundles, and put them to your carp, with four or five whole 

 onions, twenty pickled oysters and three anchovies. Then pour upon your 

 carp as much claret wine as will only cover him, and season your claret well 

 with salt, cloves and mace, and the rinds of oranges and lemons; that done 

 cover your pot and set it on a quick fire till it be sufficiently boiled; then 

 take out the carp and lay it with the broth into the dish, and pour upon it 

 a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, melted and beaten with half 

 a dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some of 

 the herbs shred; garnish your dish with lemons, and so serve it up, and 

 much good do you." 



I have never had the good fortune to eat a carp cooked after this noble 

 recipe, but I trust I may before I die. I have no doubt that it is "dish fit 

 to set before the king." 



Fresh Water Clams. 



A rapidly growing- industry is noted on the Illinois river in the 

 taking- of the mussel or fresh water clam for the manufacture of 

 buttons from its shell. The Illinois river has extensive beds of these 

 clams, they are easily taken and there is a ready market for them. 

 A large number make a business fishing for them. There is quite a 

 large variety of species, and their value is in proportion to the size 

 and consequent amount of surface of shell for cutting the blanks for 

 buttons. Prices range from $4.00 to $14.00 per ton on the banks 

 where gathered. The method of taking them is simple, cheap and effec- 

 tive. A flat boat with scow bow and ends is generally used, and on the 

 gunwale are placed standards from three to four feet high. The utensils 

 consist of an iron bar, usually iron pipe, along which is attached a 

 succession of hooks and lines, the hooks being made of bent wire 

 without barbs. The clams lie on the bottom of the stream, usually 

 with their shells open. The bar is thrown overboard and drawn along 

 the bottom of the river, the boat towing propelled by the current. 

 At the touch of the hooks the clams close their shells and hold on. 

 and the outfit is pulled up and the bar laid across the standards and 

 the clams are detached, are thrown into the boat and the process is 

 repeated. A man with a boat can make from $2.00 to $7.00 a day, at 

 this work and as his catch can be turned over for cash each night, 

 the business is a profitable one, even with this phase alone, but what 

 adds to the fascination as well as the profit is the possibility at any time 

 of finding a valuable pearl in the flesh of the clam. After the shells 

 are unloaded they are put into a large galvanized iron vessel and boiled 



— 2 F C 



