THE BARBEL. 267 



cook in the world could make it acceptable to an English 

 palate. 



But, however much to be despised gastronomically, the 

 barbel halieutically, or in an angling point of view, amply 

 makes up for his carnal insipidity and positive nastiness. 

 He is essentially a game fish when hooked, and fights 

 bravely to the last. Walton says righty, " He is so strong 

 that he will often break both rod and line, if he proves 

 to be a big one;" and right was Juliana Berners on this 

 wise : " The barbel is an evil fysshe to take, for he is so 

 strongly enarmyd in the mouth that there may no weake 

 harnesse holde him." His impetuous rushes and dogged 

 downward " boring " are a most pleasurable pain to the 

 angler, the great caudal fin, as ichthyologists call his tail, 

 acting like a screw propeller, and giving him immense 

 powers ; while his pluck and tenacity of life prolong 

 the contest far beyond the measure of any other fish of 

 equal weight, the lordly Thames trout himself not ex- 

 cepted. When hooked near some projecting shelf of the 

 bank, or the proximity of some old " snag,'" &c, the 

 pertinacity with which he will bore for his " hover " is 

 astonishing ; and it was probably this tendency and per- 

 tinacity which led Walton to observe that he " endangers" 

 the line " by running her head forcibly toward any covert 

 or hole or bank." Walton also observes that " then he 

 strikes the line, to break it off with his tail." Mr. Frank 

 Buckland, in his Familiar History of British Fishes, re- 

 peats this remark, saying, " When a barbel is hooked, he 

 always endeavours to strike at the line with his tail to 

 break it." I hope I may be pardoned when I say, " I 

 doubt this." How can Mr. Buckland tell what a barbel 

 does " when he is hooked," unless he has encased himself 



