266 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



are not much better than the bark of a tree would 

 be subjected to a similar process. No ; I would almost 

 as soon eat his flesh simply boiled, broiled, or baked, as I 

 would consume his roe, which is said ""to produce symp- 

 toms akin to those of Asiatic cholera, racking pains and 

 purging, cold extremities and deliquium." Even Wal- 

 ton, who panegyrizes almost every other fresh-water fish 

 as food, says of the barbel, " He is not accounted the best 

 fish to eat, neither for his wholesomeness nor his taste." 

 I believe that ninety-nine out of every hundred anglers, 

 and of the general public in this country who have ever 

 made bold to experimentalize once on barbel-flesh, will 

 join in an adverse verdict on it, fond though anglers be of 

 eating of their own catches. Almost the only dissentients 

 will be our Israelitish friends, who, on certain days called 

 " White Pasts," so eagerly seek to obtain barbel at any 

 cost, that it is said the Thames Angling Preservation 

 Society put on extra watchers on such occasions to prevent 

 poachers seeking to meet the demand ; and Jews at all 

 other times also eat them with apparent relish. But this 

 may be a matter of ancient law or custom among them 

 rather than of taste ; though it must be remembered that 

 Jewish cooks possess an art of manipulating fish of all 

 kinds, and especially of frying them in oil, which few 

 Christian chefs seem to attain. Jews also boil barbel in 

 vinegar and oil, and certainly this method of dealing with 

 them improves them. Still, if, as is the case, the wives of 

 Thames professional fishermen, many of whom are the best 

 fish cooks in the kingdom, and can make almost any fish 

 eatable and enjoyable which comes out of their river, 

 fail in serving up a barbel in a way agreeable to ordinary 

 good taste, I doubt whether a Jewish or any other 



