262 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



wanting ' in larder or pond.' About this time, the Re- 

 formation having prepared the way for our emanci- 

 pation from an enforced diet, and carp being left like 

 other fish to stand or fall according to its deserts, and 

 proving, so tried, anything but first-rate either as regards 

 digestibility or flavour, soon became scarce in the market, 

 and was never seen at a feast. 



The C. carpio presents some physiological phenomena 

 sufficiently remarkable to deserve particular notice. In 

 the first place, with regard to age, we find it stated on 

 respectable authority that they will reach two hundred 

 years in waters, like the ponds of Lusace, congenial to 

 their tastes.* Countless, indeed, are the sites, both at 

 home and abroad, where some sly old cyprian attains a 

 Nestorian longevity : almost every piece of water main- 

 tains some such traditional patriarch. Not long ago 

 one of these hale old water-foxes was to be seen, in a 

 parallelogram college-pond at Cambridge, who still con- 

 tinued to champ the green duckweed with a smack, and 

 to flounder heavily amongst the startled water-lilies, on 

 his veteran flank, as he used to do iu our pupillary days, 

 some twenty years back. He has seen out many a gene- 

 ration of bed-makers and ten-year men. The Lodge 

 has had many a new ' caput,' and the kitchen many a 

 new cook, since he first swam there ; yet, amidst all these 

 culinary changes, no Mseson has been permitted to lay 

 fraudulent hands upon him ; his safety is supposed to 

 be identified with the interests of the college ; and thus 

 protected by common consent from hook and every harm, 

 want has from generation to generation been carefully 

 met by his trusty nomenclator, a whistling gyp.f 



* Thougli essentially a, fresh-water fish, it might probably be 

 inured to brackish or even to salt water, since specimens have 

 been, it is said, found in harbours. 



t Since putting the above into type, we have learned with re- 



