CARP , DA CE AND MINNO W. 
433 
chub and he, have, I think, both lost part of their credit by ill cookery, 
they being reputed the worst or coarsest of fresh-water fish. But the barbel 
affords an angler choice sport, being a lusty and a cunning fish—so lusty 
and cunning as to endanger the breaking of the angler’s line, by running 
his head forcibly towards any covert or hole or bank, and then striking at 
the line, to break it off with his tail, as is observed by Plutarch in his book 
“ De Industrie Animalium,” and also so cunning, to nibble and suck off 
your worm close to the hook, and yet avoid letting the hook come into his 
mouth.” 
The Barbel, Barbus fluviatilis , the Barbe of Germany, the Barbeauof 
France, has no representative in America, though Gunther recognizes 
over two hundred species in the tropical and temperate parts of the Old 
World, some of which are of considerable economic importance, lire 
“Mahaseer,” Barbus tor , which inhabits the mountain streams of India, 
attains sometimes the weight of one hundred pounds and the length of six 
feet, and has scales as large as the palm of a man’s hand. It is the largest 
of all cyprinoids and its introduction into the United States might be 
advantageous, since when under twenty pounds in weight this and other 
Indian forms are said to be excellent food. 
The English Barbel is one of the coarsest of their “coarse fish,” and is 
not needed in America. It is, however, quite as highly esteemed in Eng¬ 
land as our chubs and suckers are on this side of the Atlantic. Its habits 
are indeed not unlike those of our suckers or catostomoid fishes, and the 
methods of Barbel angling may yet be adopted in America for the fishes 
of this group. From the angler’s standpoint, also, the Barbel is perhaps 
more like our “suckers” or Catostomidcz than any other European 
species. The Catostomidcz are, however, not represented in the Old 
World, although they are so numerous in North America that no stream 
or river is without them. 
The suckers, like the American representatives of the carp family, 
have suffered unjustly at the hands of Prof. Jordan, who is the principal 
authority as to their scientific affinities, and who, in the midst of his dis¬ 
cussions of fin-formulae and pharyngeals, never loses an opportunity to 
denounce them as unfit to eat. I can only account for his hatred of these 
fishes by the fact that he has handled so many thousands of specimens 
badly kept in alcohol, that he has acquired a loathing for them in any con¬ 
dition. Conceding to him a thorough knowledge of cyprinology and 
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