C Y P R 
fumbles the pike. The head is oblong, olive-coloured, 
and fharp-pointed. The aperture of the mouth is ob¬ 
long, and is placed under the head ; the upper lip is 
ftrong, and of a red colour, and the fifli has the power of 
protruding or drawing it back. The barbies are attached 
to the upper jaw; thofe near the extremity are fhorteft, 
thofe at the corners longer. The noftrils are near the 
eyes: the pupil of the eye is black, the iris light brown. 
The feales which cover the body are rayed and dentated, 
of a middle (ize, ftrongly attached to the Ikin, and, 
according to Richter, more than 5000 in number. The 
body is round, and olive-coloured. Above the lateral 
line the Tides are bluifh, below it whitifh inclining to 
green. The belly and neck are white. The lateral line 
is pretty ftrait, ftudded with black dots. The fins of the 
breaft, belly, anus, and tail, are reddifh ; under the ven¬ 
tral fin is a ventral appendage. The tail-fin is forked, 
and edged with brown; the dorfal bluifh. 
In the province of Jaik, the fifhing of the barbel is the 
principal occupation of the Coffacks during winter. They 
are found in moll of the lakes and rivers of RulTia, weigh¬ 
ing fometimes thirty pounds; in fummer a fifti of this fize 
cofts from five to eight copeCs, but in winter thirty or 
forty. At Aftracan and Tereh they pickle the tongues; 
then they are put into cafks, and fent to Peterfburgh. 
The Coffacks about the river Uralk make ifinglafs of the 
air-bladder of this fifti, but it is much inferior to what is 
.made from the fturgeon. The Armenians and Calmucs 
call this fifh J'afan. 
The barbel delights in a rapid ftream with a flinty bot¬ 
tom. It remains commonly concealed under the deep 
banks and between great Hones. It lives on celandine, 
fnails, worms, and final 1 fifii; it is alfo fond of human 
flefii; for, in. 1683, after the fiege of Vienna, as the bo¬ 
dies of Turks and horfes had been thrown promifeuoufiy 
into the Danube, a vaft quantity were found about the 
carcafes of the men. With a food fo varied, it will not 
appear furprifing that the barbel grows faff: they are 
taken in the Oder from two to three feet long, and weigh¬ 
ing fix or eight pounds; in the Wefer they weigh ten 
or twelve; in England they fometimes w r eigh eighteen 
pounds, and in the Nile twenty. Paulus Jovius affures 
us that this fi(h is very long-lived. They are taken in 
the Oder, the Sale, the Elbe, the Rhine, and the Wefer; 
in the latter ftream they do not yield to the falmon in 
tafte, which tafie they gain by the flax-weed being often 
thrown into the ftream: this they follow and feed upon 
with avidity; and the filhermen make their advantage of it 
in their contrivances for catching them. The barbel does 
not fpawn till about the fourth or fifth year; the l'pawn- 
ing-time is May, or June if the fpring be cold. Then 
they feek the rivers, and depofit on the ftones at the bot¬ 
tom, and where the current is mod rapid. A good bait 
foK barbel is compofed of cheefe, yolk of an egg, and a 
iittte camphor, put together in a woollen rag ; leaches 
are a good bait; alfo earth-worms or fmall fifii. While 
young, their numbers are thinned by the rapacious fillies, 
particularly the blenny. 
The barbel has ten teeth in each jaw, bent at the top, 
and placed in two rows. The ovary contains more than 
8000 eggs of the fize and colour of millet. The number 
of vertebrae is forty-fix; the ribs fixteen on each fide. 
The flefti of this fifh feems to have been held in no efti- 
mation among the ancients: Aufonius alone mentions it, 
and, without any commendation, excepting that it im¬ 
proved by age. It frequents the ftill and deep parts of 
the Britifti rivers, where it lives in fociety, and routs 
like a hog among the fandy banks. The Danube is fa¬ 
mous for the refort of this fifti ; it is there found in the 
caverns of the rocks, and holes under the banks, in num¬ 
bers that defy all computation. The peafants take them 
with their hands, in quantities fufficient to load a wag¬ 
gon. Thofe in our rivers are chara£lerifed by the fame 
tamenefs and infipidity; they are often taken with the 
hand by diving: in fummer they move about in queft of 
I N U S. m 
food; but during autumn and winter, they confine tliem- 
felves to the deepeft holes. The poorer peafants alone, 
and that from hard neceffity, are conftrained to eat them 
boiled with a piece of bacon. They are deemed the 
coarfeft of all frefti-water fifti: their roes are even held 
poifonous; but this is merely a prejudice which arole 
from an opinion of the ancients, that the female of this 
fpecies was liibjedl to a menftrual flux every new moon; 
and, as they were perfuaded that thefe evacuations were 
in general a poifon which nature threw off for the relief 
of the animal, they fuppofed that the eggs mu ft be poi¬ 
fonous alfo. The fame opinion is maintained by many 
modern authors; but it is contradicted by experience : 
Bloch, a very curious ichthyologift of our own time, de¬ 
clares, that he and all his family had eaten of the eggs 
of this fifti without the fmalleft inconvenience. 
3. Cyprinus gobio, the gudgeon. This is a fpecies of 
the narrow carps, with only two cirri. The peftoral fin is 
compofed of fixteen rays, the ventral of nine, the anal of 
ten, the tail of nineteen, the dorfal of nine. The head 
is like the reft of the narrow carps, large, and of a green- 
ifh brown colour. When the mouth is (hut, the upper 
jaw projedls a little. The eye is fmall, the pupil dark 
blue, tbe iris gold-colour.. The body is round, and co¬ 
vered with large feales ; the back is ftrait, and of a dark- 
ifti blue. Above the lateral line, the Tides are blue, but 
below they are of a colour varying from white to yellow. 
The lateral line is ftrait, and covered with blue fpots. 
The fins incline to red or green, according to the age of 
the fi(h, and the nature of the water they live in; for the 
age of fifh, the change of food or water, and the time of 
fpawning, have commonly an influence on the colour of 
their body and fins. There are feveral black fpots on 
the tail and dorfal fins, the latter of which is oppofite 
the ventral. This fifh is found in the lakes and rivers 
of France and Germany, where they meet with a clean 
fandy bottom. It is commonly fmall; yet, fometimes, 
when it finds plenty of food, it reaches the (ize of eight 
inches. The flefh is white, well-tafted, and eafy of di- 
geftion; and is therefore, in preference to almoft any 
other fifh, recommended to weak and fickly perfons. The 
Britifh gudgeon differs fomething from that fpecies found 
in Germany. Its back is dufky ; the belly of a dirty 
white: it is diftinguifhed by nine or ten large fpots of a 
blackifh colour upon the lateral lines, others of a fmaller 
fize being irregularly fcattered over the back and fins. 
At the angle on each fide of the mouth, there is a fmall 
beard of a quarter of an inch ; near the eyes are two large 
apertures of the nofe : neither jaw isfurnifhed with teeth ; 
but at the entrance of the throat there are two triangular 
bones, that perforin the office of grinders, refembling 
thofe of the carp. The gudgeon, according to Willough¬ 
by, is preferred by the Englifh to mod of die river fifh; 
it is taken in gentle ftreams, and is generally of a fmall 
fize, meafuring only about fix inches : in the Kennct and 
Cole, they are of fuperior bulk to thofe of every other 
place, and fometimes weigh half a pound. They are af- 
fembled by raking the bed of the river, which makes them 
crowd in flioals to the fpot, expecting food from this 
difturbance. They have a peculiar method of catching 
them at a village about five miles from Norwich : They 
choofe a branch of hawthorn very full of prickles; they 
tie a thread to one of the prickles, and fix a bait to both ; 
tire other end of the thread is faftened to a little brancli 
which hangs over the ftream. They lay about a hundred 
of thefe baits, and never fail to take a great many ; for, 
as foon as the gudgeon fsvallows the worm, and begins 
to retire with his prey, he finds himfelf flopped by the 
thread, and the thorn flicking in his throat. 
This fpecies is mentioned by Ariftotlc, and is there¬ 
fore probably an inhabitant of the rivers of Greece : we 
know from the accounts of travellers, that it is found in 
Syria ; and thus exhibit , a remarkable infiance ot the ca¬ 
pacity of fillies to accommodate themfelves to different 
climates. River water mull always correfpond with the 
*• temoerature 
