CHAPTEE VIII 



THE CAKP 



This is a shy, cunning, and careful fish, very crafty and 

 suspicious, and therefore very difficult to deceive. All 

 the skill and ingenuity of the angler are required to 

 entrap him ; and his patience — that only virtue which 

 the would-be wise of this world will allow him — will be 

 tried to the uttermost. 



The carp is a very handsome fish, and is very highly 

 esteemed, especially among some Continental nations, for 

 his edible qualities. 



He is to be found in most of the ponds and rivers of 

 Europe; but he chiefly frequents those waters which 

 have a very gentle flow, and in haunts of this kind his 

 flesh acquires the highest degree of delicacy and goUt of 

 which it is susceptible. Perhaps those fish are the best, 

 both in colour and flavour, which are taken out of lakes 

 and ponds of pure, limpid water, which is continually 

 changed by a placid current perpetually running through 

 them, and the bottoms of which are covered with fine 

 sand or pebbles. If, in addition to these advantages, 

 the water which drains into these ponds or lakes from 

 the surrounding lands falls over a shingly or gravelly 

 soil, the carp will be of splendid quality, and become a 

 most delicious fish. 



The carp wUl live to a great age, and in favourable 

 situations will attain a very large size. It is said that 

 the big old carp which are to be found in the fosse of 

 the chateau at Eontainebleau, in France, were placed 

 there in the time of Francis i. Buffon speaks of carp 

 U7 



