The History of Esculent Fish

Part 1

THE HISTORY OF ESCULENT FISH.

Price, in Boards, One Guinea and a Half, coloured.

THE HISTORY OF ESCULENT FISH, WITH PLATES, DRAWN AND ENGRAVED BY ELEAZAR ALBIN: AND AN ESSAY ON THE BREEDING OF FISH, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF FISH-PONDS, BY THE HONOURABLE ROGER NORTH.

LONDON: Printed for EDWARD JEFFERY, Pall Mall; ROBERT FAULDER, New Bond Street; J. CUTHELL, and J. DEIGHTON, Holborn; J. WALKER, Paternoster Row; HAMILTON and Co. Beech Street, Barbican. MDCCXCIV.

The BARBEL,

Called, in Icthyology, Barbus, but by some writers in Natural History, Mustus Stuviatitis, and is a species of the Cyprinus. The Barbel is a fish commonly known and so called from the barb or beard under its chaps or nose, and is of the leather-mouthed kind.

It is but a moderate tasted fish, and the female is less esteemed for the table than the male; but neither of them is much valued: the worst season for them is in April. They love to be among the weirs, where there is a hard gravelly bottom, and generally swim together in large shoals.

In summer, they frequent the strongest and swiftest currents of water, as under deep bridges, weirs, and the like places, and are apt to get in among the piles, weeds, and other shelter; but in winter, they retire into the deepest and stillest waters; the best season for angling for this fish, is from May to August, and the time for taking them is very early in the morning, or late in the evening. The place should be baited with chopped worms some time before; and no bait is so good for the hook as the spawn of fish, particularly the Salmon: in defect of these, lob-worms will do; but they must be very clean and nice, and the hook carefully covered, otherwise he will not touch them. Old cheese steeped in honey also is a fine bait.

CARP.

Leonard Marchal first brought this fish into England about 1514: it is the most valuable of all kinds of fish for stocking ponds, because of its quick growth and great increase. If the feeding and breeding of this fish were more understood and practised, the advantages resulting would be very great; and a fish pond would become as valuable an article as a garden. The gentleman who has land in his own hands, may, besides furnishing his own table and supplying his friends, become a source of much profit in money, and very considerable advantage to his lands at the same time, so as to make it produce more than by any other employment whatever. The sale of Carp makes a considerable part of the revenue of the principal nobility and gentry in Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony, Mecklenburgh, Bohemia, and Holstein. Particular attention should be paid to the soil, water, and situation of a Carp pond; the best kind are those which are surrounded by the finest pasture, or corn fields, with a rich black mould, and soft springs on the spot, or other running water, that is neither too cold, or impregnated with acid, calcareous, selenetic, or other seraneous, mineral particles. The water may be softened by exposing it to the air or sun in a reservoir, or by forming an open channel for it some distance from the pond; they should be exposed to the influence of the sun, and sheltered from the eastern and northerly winds.

By experience, it is found convenient to have three kinds of ponds for Carp, viz. the spawning pond, the nursery, and the main pond: the first pond must be cleared of all other kind of fish, especially those of the rapacious kind, such as the perch, pike, eel, and trout; the water beetle, and also of the newts or lizards. It should be exposed to sun and air, and be supplied with soft water. A pond of one acre requires three or four male Carp, and six or eight female ones; and in the same proportion for each additional acre. The best Carp for breeding are those of five, six, or seven years old, in good health, with full scale, and fine full eyes, and a long body, without any blemish or wound: the pond should be stocked in a fine calm day, towards the end of March, or beginning of April. Carp spawn in May, June, or July, according to the warmth of the season; and for this purpose, they swim to a warm, shady, well-sheltered place, where they gently rub their bodies against the sandy ground, grass, or osiers; and by this pressure the spawn issues out at the spawning season. All sorts of fowl should be kept from the ponds: the young fry is hatched from the spawn by the genial influence of the sun, and should be left in this pond through the whole summer, and even the next winter, provided the pond is deep enough to prevent their suffocation during a hard winter; then the breeders and the fry are put into ponds safer for their wintering.

The second kind of ponds are the nurseries; the young fish should be moved, in a fine calm day, into this pond, in the months of March or April: a thousand or twelve hundred of this fry may be well accommodated in a pond of an acre. When they are first put in, they should be well watched, and driven from the sides of the pond, lest they become the prey of rapacious birds. In two summers, they will grow as much as to weigh four, five, or even six pounds, and be fleshy and well tasted.

The main ponds are to put those into that measure a foot, head and tail inclusive; every square of fifteen feet is sufficient for one Carp: their growth depends on their room, and the quantity of food allowed them.

The best seasons for stocking the main ponds are spring and autumn. Carp grow for many years, and become of considerable size and weight. Mr. Foster mentions seeing in Prussia two or three hundred Carps of two and three feet in length, and one five feet long, and twenty-five pounds weight; it was supposed to be about sixty years old: Gesner mentions one that was an hundred years old. These were tame, and would come to the side of the pond to be fed, and swallowed with ease a piece of bread half the size of a halfpenny loaf. Ponds should be well supplied with water during the winter; and when they are covered with ice, holes should be opened every day for the admission of fresh air, through want of which, Carps frequently perish. Carp are sometimes fed, during the colder season, in a cellar: the fish is wrapped up in a quantity of wet moss laid on a piece of a net, and then laid in to a purse; but in such a manner, however, to admit of the fish breathing: the net is then plunged into water, and hung up to the ceiling of the cellar: the dipping must at first be repeated every three or four hours, but, afterwards, it need be plunged into the water only once in six or seven hours: bread soaked in milk is sometimes given him in small quantities; in a short time, the fish will bear more, and grow fat by this treatment. Many have been kept alive, breathing nothing but air in this way, several successive days.

The CHUB

Is, according to the Artedian and Linnæan system, a species of Cyprinus, and is called by the French the Vilian and Testard, and was called by the ancient Romans Squalus. The resorts of this fish are easily found; being generally holes over-shaded by trees; and on a hot day, they may be seen in great numbers, floating almost on the surface of the water. For the table they are very poor fish, full of bones. They afford much entertainment to the angler, and are easily caught. The best manner of fishing for them is thus: prepare a very strong rod of sufficient length; fix a grashopper to the hook; place yourself so as not to be perceived by the fish, and drop in the bait about two feet from the place where a Chub lies; if he does not see the angler, he rarely fails biting, and is taken directly; but he is so strong a fish, that he should be taken out carefully, after a great deal of play, otherwise the tackle will be in danger; a beetle, or any large fly, will answer the purpose in the place of a grashopper; and if none of them are to be had, the method of fishing must be altered, and the line be long enough for fishing at the bottom.

In March and April, this fish is to be caught with red worms; in June and July, with worms, snails, and cherries; but in August and September, the proper bait is good cheese, pounded in a mortar with some saffron and a little butter. Some make paste of cheese and Venice turpentine for the Chub in winter, at which season the fish is better than at any other; the bones are less troublesome in this season, and the flesh more firm and better tasted. The roe is also generally well flavoured. The angler must keep his bait for this fish at the bottom in cold weather, and near the top in hot. The fish will bite easily.

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