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U4 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The central basin is well stocked witli large carp and gold- 

 fish. Her Majesty most kindly supplied forty-four fine carp 

 from Virginia Water : a few of the largest, weighing from 8lbs. 

 to lOlbs., must be of great age (perhaps not less than 100 years 

 old), and have become grey and hoar with years. Some have 

 spawned, and the basin literally swarms with young fish. They 

 are fed daily between three and four o'clock, there not yet 

 being a sufficiency of other food in these mudless waters. As 

 yet, the mode of feeding practised at Fontainebleau has not 

 been adopted. For many years, as narrated in a periodical 

 of the day, the petting of the carp there has been a favourite 

 pastime. Maids of honour and other ladies reheve the enntii of 

 court-life by watching and feeding these fish from the windows 

 of the palace, the walls of which are washed on one side by the 

 lake ; and now-a-days there are women who make a business of 

 selling bread to visitors for the latter purpose. But they would 

 have Uttle amusement for their money if they threw in ordi- 

 nary bread. Big carp have an enormous appetite ; soft penny 

 rolls, being mere mouthfuls, disappear with ostrichdike celerity. 

 So, to prevent the immediate disappeai'ance of these honnes 

 louches, bread in the form of large balls is baked until it becomes 

 as hard as biscuit, and with these balls the carp are regaled. 

 When one is cast upon the water, it gives an idea of the enor- 

 mous carp population of the lake. As soon as the bread touches 

 the surface it is surroimded by hundreds of these fish, which dart 



the door, to the top of which was fastened a peg placed upright and so arranged 

 that, when the door was heing closed-to, the peg pressed against the bellows, and 

 meeting with resistance offered by the air within, absolutely prevented any violence 

 whatever in the shutting-to. 



