PLATE XXIX. 
Dalton, says, “ Though the spawn of the Barbel is known to be 
°f a poisonous nature, yet it is often taken by the country-people 
medicinally ; who find it at once a moll powerful emetic and ca- 
hiartic. And, notwithstanding what is said of the wholesomeness 
°f the flesh, with some constitutions, it produces the same effect as 
{ he spawn. About the month of September, in the year 1754 , a 
Se ivant of mine who had eaten pait of a Barbel, though, as I cau- 
t'oned him, he abstained from the spawn, was seized with such a 
Vl °lcnt purging and vomiting, as had like to have cost him his life.” 
According to Mr. Pennant, also, the roe is very noxious, affecting 
those who unwarily eat of it with a nausea, vomiting, purging, and 
* s ^ght swelling ; and many similar remarks might he adduced, were 
tt necessary, to prove from the most prevalent Opinion, among 
writers, either ancient or modern, that the flesh of the Barbel is in. 
different; and the roe, at leafl, in certain seasons of rhe year, is 
Poisonous or unwholesome. Mr. Bloch, however, (and, as he says, 
h°m experience) fully contradicts this prejudice, as he terms it, 
a gainst the Barbel: the flesh, he observes, is white and of a good 
favour ; and of the eggs he has eaten, w r ith all his family, and nof 
a Sl ngle person among them has ever been incommoded. 
Having taken occasion to advert to the “ Complete Angler,” of 
diat experienced fisherman, old Walton, and the notes of Sir J. 
Hawkins, it may not be thought amiss by some readers, for us ro 
a 'id °ne or two little extracts from their directions how to fish for 
■^ ai bel, as they have the countenance of those who are fond of the 
tU 'iusenicnt of angling, and are, we are persuaded, superior to any 
a ' n g we could offer on that subject. 
V °L. n. 
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