Title: The History of Esculent Fish
Author: North, Roger
Language: English
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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.



[Illustration: _Barbus: Barbeau. A Barbell._ _Elizabeth Albin Depictio
June 30. 1736._]



_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.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _Cyprinus. Carpe. The Carp._ _Eleazar Albin delineavit
Decem. 12. 1735._]



_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.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _Cephalus. The Chub._ _Fortin. Albin delin. 1740._]



_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.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _Asellus Major. The Cod-fish._ _E. Albin Delin: March 29.
1739._]



_The COD FISH_


Is the largest of the genus Aselli, by authors called Asellus Maximus,
and sometimes Asellus Varius, five Striatus. It is distinguished from
other fishes of the same kind by the following marks. Its colour on the
back and sides is a dusky olive, intermixed with yellow spots; a white
belly, with a white line running along each side from the gills to the
tail, which is curved at the abdomen, but straight elsewhere. It has very
small scales, which adhere firmly to the skin; its eyes are large; a
single beard hangs at the angle of its lower jaw, which is short, seldom
longer than one’s finger. It has a broad tongue, and several rows of
teeth, one being much longer than the rest. Among these there are some
moveable teeth, as in the Pike; and in the palate, near the orifice of
the stomach, and near the gills, it has small clusters of teeth; it has
three back-fins, two at the gills, two at the breast, and two at the
anus; and the tail is plain.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _Asellus Minor. The Haddock._ _Fortin. Albin delin.
1740._]



_The HADDOCK_


Is, according to the Artedian system, of the genus of Gadi. It is called
by Salvian the Asellus Major, or Greater Asellus, and by Turner and
Willoughby the Orus, or Asinus of the Ancients. Charlton tells us, that
it was the Callaris Galeris, or Galaxis, of the old Romans, mentioned
by Pliny; but Artedi has some doubt about that. It is likewise called
by Artedi the Gadus; with a bearded mouth, three fins on the back, a
whitish body, with the upper jaw longest; the tail a little forked. Large
Haddocks begin to be in roe about the middle of November, and continue so
till the end of January; from that time till May, their tails grow thin,
and they are out of season.

The small ones are very good from May to February; and those which are
not old enough to breed in February, March, and April. It is said by
fishermen, that in rough weather they hide themselves in the sand at the
bottom of the sea, and among the ooze, and shelter themselves till the
storm is over, because they take none in stormy weather. They live in the
summer on young Herrings, and on other young fish; and in winter, on a
species of sespula, called the stone-coated Worm, and by the fishermen,
Haddock-meat. The great shoals of Haddocks come periodically on the
coast of Yorkshire. The large ones quit the coast as soon as they get out
of season, and leave behind them a number of small ones. They are said to
visit the coasts of Hamburgh and Jutland in the summer. There is a large
black spot on each side of the Haddock, ascribed by superstition to the
mark which St. Peter’s thumb made, when he took the tribute money out of
the mouth of a species of this fish.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _Halec. The Herring._ _E. Albin Del: 1739._]



_The HERRING._


Harengus, in Icthyology, a species of the Clopea. Its Harengi forms are
these: its length is generally seven or eight inches, though it sometimes
grows to a foot; its head is flatted, and its mouth placed upwards: it
has a green back and sides mingled with blue, and a belly of a silver
cast; its scales are large and round. It is not spotted at all, and its
belly is carinated; the ridge is quite smooth, and not at all serrated;
its side lines are small, and scarce distinguishable; the lower jaw is
stronger and more prominent than the upper; its gills are four in number,
as in other fishes; their fibres very long, and open remarkably wide; so
that this fish dies almost as soon as taken out of the water: it has one
fin on its back, which consists of about seventeen rays, and is between
the head and the tail; the two ventral fins have nine rays, the pectoral
seventeen, and the anal fourteen; the tail is forked. The name Herring,
takes its derivation from the German _Heer_, an army, which expresses
their number when they migrate our seas. Herrings are found in vast
quantities from the highest northern latitudes as low as the northern
coast in France; on the coast of America large shoals of them are to be
met with as low as Carolina. In Kamtschatka they are also to be found,
and very possibly in Japan: their winter rendezvous is within the arctic
circle; they retire there after spawning, and wherever they can meet with
insect food. They are in full roe at the end of June, and in perfection
till the commencement of winter, when they begin to deposit their spawn.


PRESERVED HERRINGS.

Various are the names given to them, and according as they are ordered:
as,

1st. SEA-STICKS are what are caught all the fishing season, and but
once packed. A barrel of these contains six or eight hundred; according
to law, eight barrels go to the hundred. A hundred of Herrings is one
hundred and twenty; a last is ten thousand; and they generally reckon
fourteen barrels to the last.

2d. REPACKED HERRINGS are Herrings repacked on shore. Seventeen barrels
of Sea-Sticks make from twelve to fourteen barrels of repacked Herrings.
They repack them in the following manner: take out the Herrings, wash
them in their own pickle, and lay them orderly in a fresh barrel: they
have no salt put to them; but after being close packed, have a sworn
copper put over them with the pickle when the barrel is half full: the
pickle is brine; so strong that the herring may swim in it.

3d. SUMMERS are what are caught by the Dutch Chasers, or Divers, from
June till the middle of July. They are sold in Sea-Sticks; they will not
endure repacking: they go one with another full and shotten; but the
repacked Herrings are sorted.

4th. The SICK and SHOTTEN HERRINGS by themselves; the barrel should be
marked.

5th. CRUSS HERRINGS are what are caught after the middle of September;
they are cured with salt upon Salt: all these are full Herrings.

There is likewise another sort, called COWED HERRINGS. These serve to
make Red Herrings from September to October; they should be carried on
shore within a week after they are taken; they are roed in salt, but
never gipped; those which they make Red Herrings of, are washed in fresh
water previous to their being hung up in the Herring-Houses, generally
known by the appellation of Herring-Hangs.

Then followeth the manner of salting Herrings. When the fishes are taken
out of the nets and put into the warbacks which stand on the side of
the vessel, one fills the gipper’s baskets. The gippers, after having
cut their throats and taken out their guts, proceed to sort them. When
the gipped are put into the basket, one man takes it to the rowerback,
wherein there is salt; one stirs them about in the salt, whilst another
takes them from him, and carries them in baskets to the packers. Each
barrel is packed by four men, who lay the Herrings one by one in a very
even manner; which barrel being full, another man takes it from them.
The barrel is usually left to stand open for a day or two, to dissolve
the salt; afterwards it is filled up, and the barrel is headed. Observe,
that the pickle be strong enough to sustain the fish; otherwise they will
decay in it.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _Scombrus. Maquereau. a Mackarel._ _Eleaz. Albin del: May
3. 1739._]

[Illustration: _Scombrus. Maquereau. a Mackarel._ _Eleazar Albin
delinavit. July 21. 1735._]



_The MACKAREL._


A very common sea fish of the Schomber kind. Its nose is sharp pointed
and tapered; its eyes large; and both its jaws of the same length: the
teeth are small, but very numerous; the body compressed on the sides;
towards the tail, it is rather slender, and somewhat angular. The first
dorsal fin is placed a little behind the pectoral fin; it is triangular,
and has nine or ten stiff rays; the second has twelve soft rays, and lies
at a distance from the other; the pectoral has twenty, and the ventral
six rays: at the base of the anal fin, is a long spine. Betwixt the last
dorsal and the tail, are five small fins; the same number, likewise,
betwixt the anal and the tail. The tail is broad and semilunar; the
colour of the back and sides above the lateral line is beautiful green,
variegated with black lines pointing downwards; beneath the line, the
belly is of a beautiful silvery colour. The eyes of the Mackarel are
almost covered with a white film, which grows in winter, during which
time they are nearly blind: they cast it in the beginning of summer.

It is in high estimation amongst the Romans, because it furnished the
precious garum.



[Illustration: _Mullus. the Mullet._ _Eleaz. Albin Delin. 1739._]



_The MULLET_,


Is a name given indeterminately to fish of several kinds; but the true
meaning of the word is the same with that of the Mugil, or Cephalus. The
characters of the Mugil are these. The branchiostege membrane on each
side contains six crooked bones; the upper one being the broadest, and
hid under the gills; only five are discernible; the scales are large, and
cover the head and the opercula of the gills, as well as the body of the
fish. The head is depressed in the anterior part; the body oblong and
compressed. According to these distinctions, there is only one species
of Mugil, namely, the Mugil of Ovid and the Ancients. It resembles the
Thymallus in its external figure; its jaws are tender and thin, and have
no teeth in them; the tail is forked. The Linnæan system reckons two
species; viz. the Cephalus and Albula.

Three or four different species of the Mugil have been described by
Rondeletius and others; but their difference seems to arise merely from
age, place, and the like accidents.

The nose is sharp, the belly bowed; the head plain and flatted; the
scales are very large, and cover the body entirely. The back is of a
dusky blue, or greenish-brown colour; the belly white, and the sides
variegated, from the head to the tail, with green and black lines; its
tongue is rather rough; it has no teeth. It preys upon no fish, and is
therefore supposed to feed on weeds. At certain times it comes up the
river, but it is generally caught at sea.

The Mullet is a very good tasted fish; we make tobago of its spawn.

Mullets are to be found chiefly on the sandy coasts; particularly where
there are influxes of fresh water. They come in great shoals; and they
keep rooting the mud like hogs, and leave their trace in the form of
large round holes.

They are very cunning; and when surrounded with a net, the whole shoal
frequently escape by leaping over it; for if one takes the lead, the
others are sure to follow.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _Perca. Perche. A Pearch._ _Eleazar Albin Del. July 8.
1736._]

[Illustration: _The Pearch from the River Rhine._ _Eleaz. Albin del: May
1. 1739._]



_The PEARCH, or PERCH_,


Is a genus of fish of the order of Thoracci; the characters of these are,
that the membrane of the gills has seven bones, and the back has one
or two fins; the first spiny, and the second soft: the body is covered
with rough scales; the edges of the gill-covers are scaly and serrated.
Linnæus enumerates thirty-six species; this fish is variegated with black
spots.

There is a strange variety of Pearch; some of which are quite hunched;
and the backbone, near to the tail, very much distorted: in colour and
other respects, it is similar to the common kind.

The best time for their biting is betwixt spring and summer, as at that
time they are very greedy; and the angler, with good management, may take
all that are in the hole, at one standing, if there were ever so many.
The Pearch will bite all day long, if it be cloudy; but the best time
is from eight till ten in the morning, and from three till six in the
afternoon. It is very abstemious in the winter, and will seldom bite; if
it does at all, it is in the middle of the day. All fish bite best at
this time of the day in that season.



[Illustration: _Lucius. The Pike or Jack._ _Eliza. Albin delin. 1740._]



_The PIKE_


Is the Lucius Esox of Linnæus. It has a very flat head; the upper jaw is
broad, and shorter than the lower, which turns up a little at the end;
the body is long, slender, and compressed sideways; the teeth are very
sharp, disposed only in the front of the upper jaw, but in both sides
of the lower; sometimes in the roof of the mouth, and frequently in the
tongue.

The eyes are small, and the slit of the mouth very wide; the dorsal fin
is placed very low on the back, and consists of twenty-one rays; the
pectoral of fifteen, the ventral of eleven, and the anal, of eighteen;
the tail is bifurcated.

They are to be found in most of the lakes in Europe. Lapland produces
very large ones, some eight feet long; they are dried there, and exported
for sale.

The Pike was introduced into England in the reign of Henry VIII. in 1537,
when a Pike was sold for double the price of a house lamb in February.
Besides its usual food, fish and frogs, it devours water-rats and young
ducks. It is remarkable for its longevity: we read of one that lived till
ninety years old, and of another that was no less than two hundred and
seventy years old.



[Illustration: _Rubellio. The Roach._ _E. Albin Del: 1739._]



_The ROACH_


Is the English name of a very common fish, called by some authors the
Rutilius and Rubiculus, and by others the Rubellio. It is a species of
the Cyprinus, according to the new system of Artedi, and the Cyprinus
Rutilius of Linnæus. It has been looked upon (though without much reason)
remarkable for its liveliness and vivacity, from which comes the proverb
“sound as a Roach.” In some parts of the world, this fish will only live
in standing waters: it thrives very much in ponds and deep, still rivers:
it is very remarkable for its progeny; a pond being sooner stocked with
this fish than any other.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _Clupea: Halachie. A Shad._ _Eleazar Albin Del. June 30.
1736._]



_The SHAD_


Is the name of a sea fish of the Herring kind; it is also called the
Mother of Herrings; by some authors Clupea and Trissa; by the Ancients
Trechis, or Trichias; and the Clupea Alosa of Linnæus. In its general
form, it very much resembles the Herring; only it is flatter and
broader, and grows to a cubit long and four inches broad. The back is
convex and rather sharp; the head sloping considerably from it. The body
grows gradually less to the tail from thence. The lower jaw is rather
longer than the upper; the teeth very minute. The dorsal fin is small,
and placed very near the center: the middle rays are the longest. The
pectoral and ventral fins are small; the belly very sharp; the tail
forked: the body is of a dusky blue. Above the gills is a line of black
spots, which mark the upper part of the back on each side. The number of
these spots is different in different fish, from four to ten.

It is very common in many of our seas, and in some of our rivers which
lie near the sea. They run up there in great numbers, and are then very
fat; they afterwards become lean, and go down to the sea again. They
usually swim in large shoals together.

The Shad is in higher perfection in the Severn than in any other river
in Great Britain. It appears there in May, and in very warm seasons, in
April; it continues about two months. At its first appearance, it is
esteemed a very delicate fish; especially at Gloucester, where it sells
dearer than Salmon. The London fishmongers distinguish it from that of
the Thames by the French name of Alose. Whether they spawn in the Severn
and Wye, is not determined, as their fry has not yet been ascertained.
The old fish come from the sea in full roe.

The fishermen imagine, very erroneously, that the Bleak, which appear in
multitudes near Gloucester in the months of July and August, are the fry
of the Shad: many of these are taken in those months only; but none of
the emaciated Shad are ever caught in their return.

The Thames Shad does not frequent the river till the month of July, and
is thought a very coarse, insipid fish. At that time, the Twaite, a
variety of Shad which makes its appearance in Gloucester, and is taken
in great numbers in the Severn, but held in as great disrepute as the
Shad of the Thames. The real Shad weighs sometimes eight pounds; but in
general from four to five. The Twaite, on the contrary, weighs from half
a pound to two pounds, which it never exceeds. It only differs from the
small Shad, by having one or more black spots on its side, which are
generally placed one under the other.



[Illustration: _Tinca: Tenche: A Tench._ _Eliza. Albin Delin. May 27.
1737._]



_The TENCH_


Is, in Icthyology, the English name of the Tinca of the modern authors;
but, according to the Artedian and Linnæan system, a species of the
Cyprinus. It is distinguished by Artedi by the name of the blackish,
mucous, or slimy Cyprinus, with the end of the tail even.

[Illustration]



[Illustration: _A Salmon Trout from Berwick on Tweed_ _E. Albin 1740._]

[Illustration: _Trocta, the Trout._ _Albin Fecit, 1741._]



_The TROUT_


Is a very valuable river-fish; the characters of which are these. It has
a long body; its head is short and round, its nose blunt at the end: its
tail is very broad; its mouth large, and each jaw furnished with one row
of sharp teeth. In its palate there are three parcels of teeth, each of
an oblong figure, in the congeries, and all meeting in an angle near the
end of the nose; the tongue has also six, eight, or ten teeth on it. It
is very beautifully variegated on the sides with red spots. The colour
of the Trout, and of its spots, varies greatly in different waters and
different seasons; yet you may reduce each to one species.

In Llyndivi (a lake in South Wales), there are Trouts called Coch y Dail,
marked with red and black spots about the size of a sixpence; others,
not spotted, and of a reddish hue, which sometimes weigh from eight to
ten pounds: they are very ill tasted. In Lough Neagh, in Ireland, there
are Trouts called Buddagh, many of which weigh thirty pounds; others are
taken of a much superior size, in Hulse Water (a lake in Cumberland), the
same as those Trouts in the lakes of Geneva.

The stomachs of the common Trouts are very thick and muscular, as they
feed on the shell fish of lakes and rivers as well as the small fish; and
take gravel or stones into their stomachs to assist in comminuting the
testaceous parts of their food. The Trouts of certain lakes in Ireland
are remarkable for the great thickness of their stomachs, which, from
some resemblance to the digesting organs in birds, are called Gizzards;
and the species which have them, are called Gizzard Trouts. These
stomachs are frequently served up to the table in Ireland, under the
nomination of Gizzards.

Trouts are a very voracious fish, affording the angler great amusement.
The under jaw of the Trout is subject to the same curvature as that of
the Salmon. There is likewise a species of Trout, which migrates out of
the sea into the river Esk in Cumberland, from July to September, and
called, from its colour, the Whiting. Its taste is delicious. When they
first make their appearance from the salt water, they have a Salmon Louse
adhering to them. They have milt and spawn; but no fry has been yet
observed. It goes under the appellation of Phinocs, among the Scotch.
They are never more than a foot in length; the upper jaw is somewhat
longer than the lower; the upper contains two rows of teeth, and the
lower one: on the tongue there are six teeth. Its form is truly elegant;
the colour dusky, mingled with silver. First dorsal fin spotted with
black; the tail quite black, and forked; the first dorsal fin has eleven
rays; the pectoral thirteen; the ventral nine; the anal nine.



[Illustration: _Asellus. The Whiting._ _Fortin. Albin. delin. 1740_]



_The WHITING_


Is, in Icthyology, the English name of a common fish of the Asellus kind,
called by some Asellus Mollis, and by others Asellus Albus, or Merlangus.
It is certainly, according to the Artedian system, one of the Gadi;
distinguished by that author by the name of Gadus with three fins on the
back; without beards, with a white body; the upper jaw longer than the
lower.

The Whiting, or Gadus Melangus of Linnæus, has a very elegant form: its
eyes are large, its nose sharp; the teeth of the upper jaw are very long,
and appear above the lower when closed. The first dorsal fin has fifteen
rays, the second eighteen, and the last twenty. The head and back are of
a pale brown colour; the lateral line white and crooked; the belly and
sides silvery; the sides being marked lengthways with yellow.

They appear in the sea, by large shoals, in the spring, keeping at the
distance of about half a mile to that of three miles from the shore. They
are the most delicate and wholesome of any of the genus, and seldom grow
to more than ten or twelve inches in length.



                                    A
                                DISCOURSE
                                   OF
                          FISH AND FISH-PONDS,

                                   BY
                          The Hon. ROGER NORTH.



A DISCOURSE OF FISH AND FISH-PONDS.


_Of the Situation and Disposition of the principal Waters._

One great point in the conduct of fish, is, to have them at command;
another is, to have perpetual recruits, to supply your stock as you draw
it off. This is not to be done without a certain order and method; and
with it, nothing is more practicable and easy.

Your method must be, to have some great waters, which are the
head-quarters of the fish, from whence you may take, or wherein you may
put, any ordinary quantity of fish. Then to have stews, and other proper
auxiliary waters, so as you lead the fish from one to the other, whereby
you never shall want, and need not abound; and, which is more, lose no
time in the growth of the fish, but employ the water, as you do your
land, to the best advantage.

This will appear more distinctly in the sequel of this discourse, which
shall begin with the situation and disposition of the principal waters,
whereupon you must depend for the raising and feeding the greatest part
of the stock.

First, you must examine the grounds, and find some fall betwixt two
hills, as near a flat as may be, so as there be a sufficient current
for the water. If there be any difficulty in judging of such, take an
opportunity after some sudden rain, or the breaking up of a great snow
in winter, and you shall see plainly which way the ground casts; for the
water will take the true fall, and run accordingly.

The condition of the place must determine the quantity of ground to be
covered with water. I should propose in all, fifteen acres in three
ponds, or eight acres in two, and not less. And these ponds should be
placed one above another, so as the point of the lower may almost reach
the head or bank of the upper; which will be very beautiful, as well as
profitable, as will appear afterwards.

The head or bank, which, by stopping the water in its current, is to
raise the water, and so make a pond, must be built with the clay and
earth taken from the pan or hollow dug in the lowest ground above the
bank; and that pan should be shaped as half an oval, whereof the flat
comes to the bank, and the longer diameter runs square from it.

But were there not need of earth for this purpose, it were better to
leave the natural soil for the fish to feed upon. I shall give the reason
afterwards, and consider the manner of raising and fortifying the bank
particularly.


_Of the Manner of the making and raising Pond-Heads._

It is obvious, that if you make a dam cross a valley or swamp, where at
any time after, the water runs, it will produce a pond; and as the bank
or dam is higher at the point or center, which is against the lowest
ground, so much is the pond deeper; and if the hills on each side rise
steep and quick, the water stopped will cover less ground than if they
rise slow.

Now first, for making the bank or head, you must be sure it is tight, and
that it do not sew or leak, as it will certainly do, if it be composed
of mere earth; therefore a bed or wall of clay, the whole length of the
bank, must be carried up with good ramming, from a foot or two below the
surface of the ground, to such height as you propose the water shall
stand.

If you do not give the bed of clay this foundation, the water lying under
a great weight from the depth of it, will work itself underneath, so
allow a spit or two at least for it. Then, as you ram the clay, you must
be sure that earth be brought to carry the bank up with it, or else the
sun will search and crack it, which is of pernicious consequence; so when
it is come to its full height, close and cover it with earth immediately,
lest the inconvenience happens.

You must allow three feet to the breadth of this bed of clay, and raise
it to the height you intend the water shall stand, and lay earth three
feet higher; two feet would have served, but that the allowance of one
at least must be made for the sinking of the bank; for it will do so
notwithstanding the pressing of tumbrels, horses, and men working upon it.

If you project many stews, or other ponds to be sunk right down about
the same time, you will have great advantage by the clay you take out of
them, which will be much more than is necessary for the bed, and that may
fortify the bed, by being pressed down by the tumbrels on each side of
it; and so the bank will be very much confirmed, and it will also save
breaking of ground within the pond, which is a great advantage in the
feed of the fish.


_The Dimensions of Pond-Heads._

The dimensions of these banks are governed by the manner of the hills
rising; for if it be quick, then, to cover a competent quantity of
ground, you must raise the bank higher, and consequently it must be made
stronger, than when the ground riseth slow, so as a moderate height
shall cast the water upon ground enough. And of this there will be
great difference; for in some places, ten feet high shall cover as much
as twenty feet in others. And this will be easily discovered by the
water-level, used according to art, whereby you may stake the water-line
upon the ground to any height; and so you will fix the determinate height
of the bank.

I will suppose a medium, and that a bank, fourteen feet high at the
center, will cover the quantity of ground. Then you must make your bank
at the foot at least fifty feet wide, and so straitening by equal degrees
on either side, bring it to sixteen at the top; and so you will have a
sufficient slope, and the bank will stand firm and durable, scarce to be
destroyed without as much pains and industry as made it.

By this proportion, pond heads of any dimension may be projected; the
matter is not so nicely circumstanced, that a little more or less
should signify. But it must be noted, that to make them too slight, is
the greatest error, and most to be avoided; let them be rather made
too strong, for then you have not only a more secure bank, but a more
beautiful walk, and more room for wheel-carriage, besides a capacity of
some wood; all which compensate the charge of what is superfluous.


_Of securing your Banks._

If the bank be well made, and in sufficient dimension, nothing can hurt
it, but great land-floods, or water-shots, which, if suffered to run over
the bank, will carry away the fish, which in a warm flood will rise, and
go with it to seek adventures, but also gurry holes in the back of the
bank, and weaken it so much, that if the flood continues, it shall carry
all away together.

For preventing of this mischief, there are two ways; 1. Grates at each
end of the bank, planted upon the level that is to be the highest of the
water. 2. Channels of diversion, which being taken so high in the current
as may lead the water upon the side of either hill above the bank, you
have the power to turn out all the water when you please, so that none
shall come upon the bank.

1. As to grates, the way of them is well known; however observe, that if
they be made of wood, the banks must be set diagonally, like window-bars;
for so rubbish stops least against them, and the water passeth freely.
And in regard you cannot allow any great distance between them for
keeping in the fish, you must help out the room by extending the grate
from each side of the cut in the bank where the water is to vent, some
considerable space from the bank, and there to meet in a point, forming
a triangle upon the bank. Here are many more slits for the water to vent
at, than if the grate lay flat upon the bank, covering the passage only.
And if need be, there may be doors to slide up and down, made in the
grate, to let the water pass more freely; but this endangereth losing the
fish. If you will afford iron for these grates, you need only cover the
passage of the bank; for the bars need not be so thick, but there will be
space enough for the water to vent at.

2. The channels for diverting the water are very useful in this and many
other respects; for they give you a perfect command of the water, and
you may turn it which way you please, so as to fill or keep dry any of
the ponds, and in a wet season are a perfect security. These should be
made four feet wide, and on each side of the ponds the loss of ground is
not considerable; for wood growing there will make amends for it.

The string of ponds in Hyde-Park are admirably disposed in this respect;
for the current of the valley is carried along by the side of all the
ponds, and may be let into any of them, or any may be emptied into it;
than which, there is not a greater command of water.

However carefully a bank is made, it is probable it will sew a little at
first; but this should be no discouragement; for by the settling of the
earth, it will continually grow higher, and in a few years, if made with
tolerable care, be as firm as a rock.


_Of Sluices._

These are very requisite to the good command of a water, and though
very ordinarily used, yet require an experienced carpenter to make and
fix them as should be, especially in great waters; and such as have not
experience, shall err most grossly in this work. They must be framed so
as to stand firm, that the force of any thrust, or a boat’s running
against them, may do no prejudice to them: for if they are any thing
strained, they are apt to prove leaky; and in so great an height as is
needful for deep waters, a small matter will do it, unless they are
extraordinarily well abutted.

The timber-work must be heart of oak, especially the top, and that all of
one piece, how long soever it be; and the vent hole must be guarded with
large boxes perforated so as the water, but no fish, may pass. And all
this well framed, and what is under ground extraordinarily rammed with
clay, else it will be apt to leak.

The use of these is very great: for if a great water must be emptied,
you must either apply engines, cut the bank, or draw a sluice. As for
engines, they are too chargeable, and puzzling to fix; however, I may
propose to them that are lovers of art, some facile ways of lifting
great quantities of water. Then, if you cut the bank, the passage is
interrupted and made troublesome by the earth, and you shall scarce ram
it up so well again, but it will perpetually leak about the place where
the fissure was; but sluices vent the water certainly, though slowly,
without any labour, charge, or inconvenience.


_Of the Manner of working to raise a Pond-Head._

Now, as for the manner of raising this bank, which I think is the only
chargeable work you have, I shall give some light into the way of
working, so as to abridge the expence as much as may be. The advantage of
trades, is, that by continual experience, they find nearer ways of doing
things, spending fewer strokes, and less time, than others can. And in
the conduct of this work, there is much to be saved; every man’s reason
leads him to contrive compendiums of business, as I have done in the
disposition of my waters; which experience of mine may save others the
thought, as well as loss by making their own experiments.

When you have projected your work, for which the latter end of June,
or the beginning of May, is the best time, take the assistance of your
neighbours, and provide yourself with six tumbrels, four good horses, and
two stout labourers, besides the driver to each pair of tumbrels. I call
them pairs, because they work alternately with the same horses; so that
one is filling, while the other is moving, and your labourers, as well as
horses, are always at work.

The first work to be done, is, the taking up the first spit of earth
where the bank is to be, and from the pan of the pond, and to lay it by
for the uses I shall declare hereafter.

Then lay down your sluice, with trunks sufficient to convey the water
through the head or bank. This must be done at the deepest part of the
ground, which probably will fall in the center of the bank. This will
employ two pair of tumbrels and four labourers, for digging and fetching
of clay, besides four labourers to ram it, which must be, as was said,
very well done. And the carpenter, who beforehand hath fitted his work,
must attend also one whole day to help in the laying it down, and to see
it well rammed.

The next day’s work may be the employment of two pair of tumbrels in
fetching of clay, and four or five good labourers to ram the foundation
of the bed of clay. And I suppose this may rise a foot in one whole day’s
work, more or less, as the length of the head is. Clay riseth stiff, and
for that, if it riseth near, as in the pan of the pond, three labourers
to a pair of tumbrels, are requisite to dig and fill, otherwise the
horses will be idle, and want work as well as the rammers.

The day after employ four pair of tumbrels more, to fetch earth out of
the pan of the pond to lay along the bank on each side of the bed of
clay, the whole length of the head; and to this work, two labourers for a
pair of tumbrels are enough.

Here you must lay on six labourers at least, to ram the bed of clay, and
spread earth upon the bank, so that it may be done as fast as the six
tumbrels supply it; and by this means the bank and bed of clay will rise
together.

Thus you proceed till the bank is finished, which will rise faster as
you come nearer the top, and so will somewhat alter the employment of
the tumbrels and men, which you must conform in proportion accordingly.
And observing these directions, you may make two ponds in one month
(supposing the weather propitious), which shall be three, four, or five
acres apiece, as the ground gives, and not expend in money above eighty
pounds, although you pay for every hour’s work of man and horse.

But considering that a gentleman is supposed to intend this business, not
only as a care, but an entertainment, he will not suffer his own servants
and horses to be without a share of it; and then I cannot imagine which
way he can expend above sixty pounds, supposing labourers work for twelve
pence per day, which I cannot say they will do in all countries.

The third pond may be a work of another year; and if the ground lies
fair for it, that is, much upon a level, I would not be without it; for
it will add much to the ornament of your estate, because it will fill up
a range or string of waters, which two do not; and besides contribute
vastly to the increase of fish, as I shall shew; and I press this thing
the rather, because without it, in the method I propose, you will have
the use of but one pond as to water every year. Nay, were not œconomy,
and saving charge, one great branch of my design, I should recommend more
of these waters, if the place will receive them.

And to demonstrate the charge is not so very great, compared with the
other expences gentlemen are at for their diversion, without any return
of profit, as to deter any from undertaking this particular work; I
must remember, that once, at the command of my Lord North, I did, as I
have directed, proceed to the making one great pond, and one stew, at
Catledge, which are still to be seen, but neglected; and besides, the
regard to profit by the fish they would maintain and supply, the very
ornament of them was worth the charge. I was limited to ten pounds,
besides the work of his lordship’s horses, which I compute to be four
pounds more; so the whole did not cost fifteen pounds, and yet a full
acre of ground lay under water, and all was completed in twelve days. His
lordship would not allow the laying down a sluice, else that water was a
specimen of my proposition, as well for the conduct, as the charge of the
work.


_Of Auxiliary Waters._

As a great garrison must have many subservient forts and redoubts
dispersed about the place, for securing the country, and collecting the
contributions, which are to maintain the head-quarters; so the great
ponds, which are the head-quarters of the fish, must be accommodated
with many other subservient waters, which I call auxiliary, because they
serve to relieve the greater when over stocked, to supply them when under
stocked, and to rear up and maintain fry and young stores, as well as to
render the fish easy to be taken; without which conveniences, you will
have but a sorry account of the fish.

There are stews, moats, and ordinary ponds dispersed about in your estate
and neighbourhood; the employment of which being very considerable in the
well ordering of fish, I will consider each apart; and first, of stews.


_Of Stews._

The peculiar use of these, is, to maintain fish for the daily use of your
house and friends, whereby you may with little trouble, and at any time,
take out all or any fish they contain; therefore it is good to place them
in some inclosed grounds near the chief mansion-house. Some recess in a
garden is very proper, because the fish are fenced from robbers, and your
journey to them is short and easy, and your eye will be often upon them,
which will conduce to their being well kept, and they will be an ornament
to the walks.

If you have two great waters of three or four acres apiece, I do advise,
that you be not without four stews, of two rods wide and three rods long
apiece. The way of making these, is, by cutting the sides down somewhat
sloping, and carrying the bottom in a perpetual decline from end to end,
so as you may have a convenient mouth, such as horse-ponds usually have,
for taking out your nets when you draw for fish.

If you have ground enough, it is better to make a mouth at both ends, and
the deepest part in the middle; for so you may draw your nets backwards
and forwards, losing less time, and the fish will not have such shelter,
as the depth under a head will be. Besides this, you will find the fish
will delight themselves in coming upon the shoals, and it may be, thrive
better. But for this manner you must allow at least a rod of ground in
length more than for the other.

These I intend for carps chiefly, though not absolutely; and if you find
the tench and perch increase and prosper, you may make other lesser stews
to accommodate them apart, if you please; and so you will have them at
command, without disturbing the other fish; only observe this by the way,
that perch will scarce live in stews and small waters, if the weather be
hot, but will pine, grow lean and thin, if not die; therefore the stews
are to be their winter-quarters; from whence you take them for the use of
your table, but in summer translate them to the greater ponds.

These stews being designed at the same time you raise the pond-heads,
will be done almost under the same charge, as is hinted elsewhere: and
once made, you have the fish at a minute’s warning ready for the kettle,
or any other use; which convenience is the great end of all the charge
and pains, and without it, you are not a master of fish.


_Of Moats._

These were made ordinarily for securing of dwelling houses, rather than
for fish; and since wars have been less frequent, or rather, grown so
much an art, that the ancient way of fortifying is not useful, are almost
disused. For being laid so near the dwelling, as we observe commonly
they are, for want of sun, and air to purge them, the water grows putrid
and slimy, yielding no pleasant scent to the house; besides, when
laid dry, as is necessary sometimes, the stench and filth of them are
insupportable; and therefore many gentlemen have either slighted them
wholly, or presented the form only, as a walk or low garden, planting the
side-walls with fruit, but without water: and so is the moat at Althrop
in Northamptonshire, a seat of the Earl of Sunderland’s, much of late
beautified, put in order, and from a defect, turned to a great perfection.

But I am an advocate for moats, ordered as they might be, and do esteem
them a very great accomplishment to a seat in many respects. 1. Though
they are not a fortification for resistance in time of war, yet against
pilferers and tumults, they are sufficient and better than any walls you
shall make. 2. They shall nourish a world of fish, which, though not so
well at command as in other waters, yet for angling, and the sporting
part of net-fishing, are better than the others are, because nearer, and
fished with smaller nets. 3. They are an ornament and delight to a seat
beyond imagination, as will appear when I have shewed how I would have
them made; and of that next.

They should encompass not only the house, but all the out houses, yards,
orchards, and it may be a pightle or two, such as are neat for ordinary
convenience of horses, or a cow or two: I say, all that is called the
home-stall, should be environed by the moat. It should be no less than
forty yards, or one hundred feet over, cut down with a slope on each
side, as your pond-heads were, without walls; which are too great charge
to keep in repair. And towards the pastures, you may make a mouth; if
it runs the whole length of one side of your moat, it is the better,
and fish will increase and thrive from it. Let there be but two avenues
with bridges: And to prevent the charge of crossing so great a length
with bridge-work, you may leave the earth on each side broad enough for
carriages, but not to meet by ten or twelve feet, which may be covered
by a bridge, and underneath, the water to communicate; so the pass shall
be, as upon a causeway, with a draw-bridge; for so it may be made, if you
please.

I know all situations and soils will not admit of this; for some are
low and marshy, and so have naturally too much water; others are upon
hanging ground, which for want of a level, cannot be moated in this
manner; others are sandy, and will not hold water: But the happiest of
all, is, such a situation as either hath springs, or will take a current,
and discharge it again by a sluice or gates, so that the moat shall be
perpetually fed with a fresh water, and may at any time be laid dry;
therefore in these affairs there must be a previous judgment of the
place, else undertakings will not succeed, and that is a great disgrace.

Now, such a moat as this hath all the convenience I spoke of, besides
serves the house with water; which from the wind and the sun’s free
access to it in a great body, will certainly preserve it sweet and
wholesome. The sinks of the house will not foul it, as it doth in lesser
quantities, even to kill the fish, as well as make the water unfit for
use. The view of it is a delicacy the greatest epicures in gardening
court, and we hear of it by the name of canal. Then the moving upon it in
boats, either in calm weather, or with some wind that stirs the water,
and gives a power of employing somewhat of sail, after a romantick way;
and thus circling an house, taking the variety of walks and gardens here
and there, visiting stables and offices, seeing the horses air upon the
banks, &c. are pleasures not given to be understood by any but statesmen,
laid aside for their honesty, who by experience are taught the variety of
greatness, and have an understanding to distinguish the true felicities
of life.

I know the objection of charge, which must be very great in such a
work, as this; but I consider the great profusion of money that is
allowed to transitory vanities; such as habits, treats, equipages,
not to mention vices too well known; such as are tellers of money and
depauperate families, leaving nothing but diseases to shew for them. If
so much, or a much less proportion being disposed to employ mankind,
the poor especially, in making holes, and filling them again, were much
more commendable. What is it then to produce advantage to yourself
and family, to improve your habitation and estate, preserve health and
reputation?

But even the charge might be alleviated, if not in great part saved,
by good management. For such gross works as this may be put out to
undertakers, and you may compute by the solid foot or yard, what the
charge will be; and the masters will see the men work, which you cannot
do if you are master, and do all by the day. Then, every one delights to
have raised walks and terraces about an house and garden; so that the
earth being employed in such, and raising mounts in proper places, will
produce a real equivalent for the charge: but this is a digression which
here I conclude, and return to the affair of fish.

Then considering moats, as commonly they are, it is not expected that the
fish should be much at command, because it is difficult, and perhaps not
convenient to lay them dry. However, they should be kept full stocked,
and will maintain a great many. This will mend your angling, and the
fishing with nets will seldom be labour in vain, as certainly it will
prove if under stocked. These waters will receive a great share of your
fry and stores that are superfluous, and so preserve them.

If a moat come to be laid dry, as will be necessary sometimes to keep it
from turning all to mud, after you have by a sluice or cut, drained the
water as low as you can, make dams with boards and clay, and ram them to
be water-tight; so you may toss the water out of one division to another,
and take out the fish in good order; but if you dry all together, you
will not be able to secure all; besides, having one division full of
water, you can relieve the fry and eels by letting it upon them; which
else, for want of a fresh to let in upon them, will be lost. So when one
division is fished, that is relieved by tossing the water out of the
next. And this course is not amiss, though you intend to throw out the
mud; for the saving the fish while you are taking them out, quits the
charge of making the stanks.


_Of other auxiliary Waters._

You must have other waters besides stews, to assist in the disposition of
the fish; for laying a pond in that great order dry, as I propose, once
in every year, there will be a great quantity of fish to be disposed;
so that you must have a sufficient quantity of waters to receive when
you abound, and to recruit when you want. The stews will carry sixty,
seventy, or eighty carps apiece, supposing you spend continually out of
them; so other waters will receive their proportion, by sending this way
and that the stock of fish, you will preserve all, and know where to find
them again.

These bye-ponds will be dispersed about your estate, where perhaps your
predecessors thought fit to make them, for the convenience of their
pastures, or you may make them as you can best, with respect to charge
and other advantages, observing always in a ground to take that part for
your pond, to which the waters are most apt to settle. In some places,
but very few, the waters stand best upon the hills, and the valleys, when
sandy, will not hold well. The nature of the ground is to be regarded.

Some ponds of good depth, of about five or six rods square, should be
assigned to maintain pikes, which, when great, ought to be kept by
themselves; for in a few years they will devour other fish, and greatly
surprise you in the destruction they will make. But I shall speak more of
this when I come to the stocking of waters.

I do much approve of cleansing and carting out the mud of small
standing waters once in seven or eight years, and so letting them lie
dry one summer, if you can spare the water; which, from moats, and
pasture-waters, can scarce be done, without great inconvenience. These
matters exercise the invention of a good œconomist, who will endeavour
to prevent damage, as well as save time, and turn even his pleasures to
profit.

One thing I advertise here, which is, not to let carps continue in a
small standing water above two summers and one winter; for so you run a
much less hazard from frost, than otherwise you will do; besides, the
fish will grow much more upon transplanting, than by continuing in the
same water, and more in the great, than in the small waters: but of these
things more afterwards.


_The Course of laying the Great Waters Dry._

Before I come to the business of fish, I will finish what I had to say
about ponds, and the conduct of them; and of that only remains to speak
of the course of laying them dry.

As for the smaller waters, I have touched what concerns them already; as
for the greater, or principal ponds, proceed thus:

In October, or after, draw the sluice of the first made pond, and lay
it as dry as possible you can. It may be the sluice, especially if the
pond be many acres, will not vent the water suddenly. That is of no great
import, because, as the waters fall, you will have opportunity of fishing
with nets, and so clear the fish by degrees; which left to the last, will
be too great a burden to clear, and will not be done without damage;
besides, the hurry will disorder every thing. If the sluice will not vent
all the water from the pan, a labourer or two will soon throw it out with
scuppets. Here you find the use of the channels of diversion, spoke of
before; for they will keep off all land-waters, if the time should prove
rainy, and so permit the pond to empty, and continue dry, which you could
not answer for a day without them; and therefore they should be made on
both sides of the waters, on each hill one, which will defend the shot of
these hills, that otherwise would retard the work.

When your pond is dry, and thus secured, keep it so all summer, and
you may make a profit of the soil sufficiently, either by ploughing or
feeding. And at Michaelmas next, or a little sooner, let fall the sluice,
and turn in all the water you can, that the pond may fill, and at the
being near full, it is ready to receive the stock again.

At the same time lay another dry, proceeding as before; which you may do
alternately during your whole life: nay, if you have but two great ponds,
this is the best course, and will turn most to the profit and feed of the
fish, as I shall shew when I speak of feeding.

If your stock be very great, you may let your ponds stand full two or
three years, but not longer, unless you delight to see starved lean
fish; for such they will certainly be, unless you keep an under-stock by
three-fourths continuing in the same water four or five years. And it
is a certain rule, that the oftener waters are laid dry, the better the
feed of the fish shall be, and more shall be maintained. And a little
experience will demonstrate the advantage to be great, as to the size,
fatness, and sweetness of the fish.

When your pond is dry, concern not yourself to carry out the mud for the
first fourteen or fifteen years; and then let it be only out of the pan
whence you took the earth to raise the bank, but never break the turf of
the rest of the ground flowed: but when it comes to be a yard thick in
mere mud, it is good to take it out; for though mud be good to improve
ground, yet, when it is taken from the pond, down to the dead earth, your
ground and soil are depauperated, and the water by consequence, which
cheats the fish, that is, yourself.


_Of the Breeding of Fish._

Having done with ponds, the manner of making, preserving, and using them,
I intend next to discourse of fish, and how best to dispose them to
maintain the waters in full stock: but before I come to the stocking of
waters, I must speak of the course of breeding fish, whereby the stock is
to be recruited and supplied.

Some have thought, that great difference is to be found in the sorts of
carps, some whereof are more apt to grow up to a great size, others to
spread and look thick, and others for the sweetness of the meat. I do
not deny but there may be some difference, but I cannot esteem it so
considerable, as to be worth the looking after. Varieties in nature are
infinite, and in the several breeds of fish, as of other creatures: yet
I have not observed so much of it in carps, that I could tell how to
distinguish them, where I could promise myself better success with one
sort than another. This is a nicety which fishmongers, that make a trade
of buying and selling, talk of, intending it only as a topic of mystery,
which all trades affect, and to have something to say for valuing or
undervaluing, as they sell or buy, to justify in their talk the prices
they propose to take or give; therefore this nicety is left to them.

I do yet believe, that a sort of fish, bred in great numbers in bad
waters, over-stocked, and almost starved, may in process of time
degenerate, and both lose a good shape, and be less apt to grow up
to a due greatness, than others that have been better descended of a
cultivated stock: and on the other side, it is no less possible, that by
coming into good quarters, fish may improve and mend; so that a gentleman
is to expect the goodness of his fish from the cleanness of his waters,
and the plenty of their feed, and not from any choice of his stock or
breed; and let him get them where he may, if well ordered, he may assure
himself they shall answer his expectations.

It is a common observation, that some waters will, and others will not
breed. It is my experience, that most waters, the first year after having
lain dry a summer, do breed, and that numerously, especially carps,
which I have known increase to such an incredible fry, that I have been
troubled how to dispose them, so as to have them again after three or
four years, when they became good stock for great waters. Eels and perch
are of very good use to keep down the breed of fish; for they prey much
upon the spawn and fry of bred fish, and will probably destroy the
superfluity of them.

The quality of breeding is scarce to be found out by any certain symptom;
for some very promising ponds do not prove useful that way. The best
indication I know of a breeding pond, is, when there is good store of
rush and grazing about it, and gravelly shoals, such as horse-ponds
usually have. When a water takes thus to breeding, with a few milters and
spawners, two or three of each, you may stock a country.

As for pike, perch, tench, roach, &c. they are observed to breed in
almost any waters, and very numerously; only eels never breed in perfect
standing waters, and without springs; and in such are neither found,
nor increase, but by putting in; but where springs are, they are never
wanting, though not put in: and which is most strange of all, no person
ever saw in an eel the least token of propagation, either by milt or
spawn in them; so that whether they breed at all, and how they are
produced, are questions equally mysterious.


_The Manner of Stocking Waters._

I have found a great analogy between the stocking waters with fish, and
pastures with cattle; and that the same conduct and discretion belong
to both. Waters may be over-stocked, as pastures often are; so both may
be under-stocked. The latter is the less error; for if you over-stock,
you lose the whole summer’s seed; if you under-stock, you lose only the
rest of your profit; what you do seed, is much the better, and turns to
account by more ready sale. So also of beasts; some of the same age and
seeding will not thrive so well as others. I have found the like in my
fish. And waters themselves, like pastures, have varieties of goodness;
some will raise carps from five to eighteen inches, in five years;
others will not do it in ten. This is most sensible between your great
waters made upon a fall, and the small standing waters, which have more
inconveniencies, and are liable to frosts, and other casualties, more
than the others are.

Therefore I propose, that the smaller waters should be used as nurseries,
and either to breed, or be stocked with the bred fry of other waters,
to raise them to a fitness for stores in your principal feed; that is,
to six or eight inches. And of these bred fry, you may put one hundred
into four rods square of water, or near that proportion, and fail not
to remove them in two years time; and so you will have good recruits of
stores for your greater waters.

And thus the many thousands of bred fish that you will have upon the
draining your great waters, which many are apt to slight, may be sent
several ways to the waters about that and your neighbour’s grounds,
and there fed up like chickens, and in time turn to great profit, as
I shall shew; therefore they ought not to be slighted, but carefully
to be preserved; the rather, because considering a pond (as I propose)
will, though but four acres, feed up one thousand six hundred carps in
two, and perhaps in one year, from ten to eighteen inches, fit for your
table-presents, or sale. How is it possible you should restock your
waters the winter after, without this providential forecast, whereby you
have magazines of fish in other ponds, fit stores to supply your occasion?

Now, as for your great and principal waters, it is hard to assign a
certain proportion for the stock; but perusing the methods I propose,
you will soon come to the knowledge what stock the waters will carry;
for laying a pond dry every year, you will see the fish well fed, or
else thin and lean; and accordingly you judge whether the stock was too
little or too much for the water. Thus, by the thickness or fatness of
cattle, you judge if your ground will carry more or not; and both as to
species and number of fish, experience must be your guide in the stocking
of waters.

However, to save loss of time, which you must sustain by making your own
experience, I will give the best directions I can, for the first entry
upon your business, and not leave the matter wholly in the dark.

If the pond be supplied with a white fat water upon great rains, you may
put into it at first three hundred carps per acre, in case there be three
or four acres, else not so many. And it will be expedient to put in forty
or fifty tenches for a trial, because this sort of water is most proper
for carp; but being laid dry, sometimes may prove well for tenches also,
which, when thriven, are a very good fish; but this proof by trial must
determine.

You may add perches to any number, and not hurt the water: I propose
six hundred; for though they are great breeders, being also fishes of
prey, they devour their own species as much, if not more than any other;
and by destroying the fry of bred fish, they preserve the food for the
maintenance of their feeders, which the fry would intercept; so do good
rather than harm. I took once out of a perch’s belly of ten inches, ten
other perches. This is esteemed one of the best sorts of fresh-water
fish, and therefore deservedly to be encouraged.

Have a great care of putting bream in this sort of waters; for they will
grow up very slowly, though at last they will be great; but in the mean
time they breed so infinitely, and such a slimy nasty fry, as both robs
and fouls the water, making it unfit for the other fish. But when a water
is ten or twelve acres, and fed with some brook, winter and summer, they
will do very well; otherwise not to be made use of.

As for pike, which are inferior to no fresh-water fish, and now more
esteemed than ever, being less plentiful upon draining the fens, and so
harm more; they are dangerous guests in the great waters; for if grown
large, they will devour and destroy the best fish, and depopulate the
water. But thus far you may trust them; if you can procure one hundred
jacks once in two years not exceeding nine inches, you may put them with
the carps into your great waters, so as your carps are not under nine or
ten inches; but take care that they stay not above two years, and then
send them to their peculiar ponds, and feed them as I shall hereafter
discourse, and so they will grow to be very large and fine fish, which
you would not want.

I cannot advise the stocking great standing waters with eels, for they
grow slow, and being of an indifferent size, will be lean and dry; but in
moats, which have the sinks of an house drain into it, is proper enough
for them, and they will thrive in it. It is a sort of fish, as I noted,
that belongs to a springy water.

These directions belong to the first stocking of new-made ponds, which,
as to feeding, lie under a disadvantage; the reason I have touched, and
is from the dead earth in the pan from whence you raised the bank,
and that at first, which is about an acre, is almost unprofitable. But
afterwards, when that dead ground hath contracted a little new soil from
the settling of the water, especially after land-floods, and lain dry a
summer, whereby it will begin to graze, it will become like the rest of
the pond, and put forth as good feed for fish as any other part. This may
seem strange and new, but is a great truth, known to me from indubitable
experience.

Then after one, two, or three years (for longer the pond must not stand
full), when you come to restock, and so on in all like occasions, you may
put four hundred carp, or three hundred carp, and eight hundred tench (if
the water feeds them) into an acre, besides perches. It is incredible
to those who have not seen it, as I have done, how carps thus ordered,
by transplanting them every year or two, will grow. I affirm, that from
six, they will grow to twelve and better the first, and to fifteen or
sixteen the next year; and then they are most fit for a gentleman’s table
ordinarily; for though greater are more ostentatious, yet these are the
most sweet and best meat, as young flesh is commonly preferred to old.

It is to be noted, that if the fish wherewith you stock the waters, were
kept so close together, and come from over-stocked waters, which renders
them lean and poor, you must double the stock at first; else the two
sudden plenty of food at first will surfeit them, and they will die of
overmuch blood, as I have found to my great loss.


_Of the Manner of feeding Fish._

In a stew you may keep up thirty or forty carps, from October to March in
winter, without feeding; and by fishing with trammels or flews in March
or April, you may take from your great waters, to recruit the stews; but
you must not fail to feed all summer, from March to October again, as
constantly as your cooped chickens are fed, and to as good and certain
account. The reason you feed in summer, and not in winter, is, because
the fish will lie close in cold weather, and feed little, not caring to
stir, especially upon the shoals, where it is proper to give them meat.

If you would bring more fish together into your stews, you may preserve
and improve them by feeding; but there are bounds, because the water
is but small, and will not admit any great number: but if you have a
great number of fish to be kept for an opportunity, and you put them
into a considerable water, you may in that manner stock to any quantity,
taking care duly to feed them; and so not only maintain, but improve
one thousand per acre; but if thus over-stocked, and you do not feed
sufficiently, they will sink, and you be a great loser.

Now, as for your stews, the care of feeding is best instructed to a
butler or gardener, who are or should be always at home, because the
constancy and regularity of serving the fish, conduce very much to their
well eating and thriving; for they will expect their meat as duly as
horses, and appetite in any creature wastes by disappointment.

Any sort of grain boiled is good to feed with, especially malt coarse
ground. Pease boiled a turn or two are as good as any other grain. The
grains after a brewing, while they are good and sweet, are very proper;
but one bushel of malt not brewed, will go as far as two of grains. The
chippings of bread, and orts of a table, steeped in tap-droppings of good
strong beer or ale, are very good food for carps. Of these the quantity
of two quarts to thirty table carps every day is sufficient; and to feed
morning and evening, is better than once a day only.

The place to feed is towards the mouth, at about half yard deep; for that
keeps the deep clean and fit, as a parlour to retire to, and rest in. The
meat plainly thrown into the water, without other device, will be picked
up by them, and nothing shall be lost. However, there are several ways to
give them meat, especially pease, which are useful, as a square board let
down, with the meat upon it, by the four corners, whence a string comes,
and made fast to a stick like a scale, is very manageable. A gentleman
had found out a very facile way to feed carps, worth noting, because I
have heard it was successful. He let down the very kettle in which the
pease were boiled, into the water, and the fish would come and take out
every grain.

When you feed in the greater waters, where the numbers are also great, it
will be a charge as well as trouble; but when you take out the fish, and
see how they are thriven, you will allow both well employed. Either malt
boiled, or fresh grains, is the best food in this case: and what is not
supplied from your own house and brewings, you may take of neighbouring
alehouses, who will be willing, for a small matter, to throw into the
water, at a place you shall assign, a certain quantity every brewing.
Thus carps may be fed and raised like capons. And tenches will feed in
stews, as well as carps; but perch, as was said, are not for a stew in
feeding time.

There is a sort of food for fish, which I may call accidental, and is no
less improving, than the best you can contrive; and that is, when the
waters happen to receive the wash of commons where many sheep are fed,
the water is enriched by the earth, and shall feed many more carps, than
otherwise it would. This is the case at Antlingham in Norfolk, where
there are ponds in a common that raise carp wonderfully, although the
soil be sandy and poor, and the waters seldom let out; and this earthy
wash is the reason of it. When cattle are fed upon the pastures by your
great waters, if they have access to them, in hot weather they will take
delight to stand in the water; the dung that falls from them, is also a
very great nourishment of fish.

It is believed, that about London the fishmongers have ways of making
carps fat by the offal of butchers shops and slaughter-houses; which I
do not at all recommend to others, if that were to be done, because a
sudden filthy feeding can neither be wholesome nor sweet. But I have not
observed, that carps do in any sort delight in blood, nor indeed any
other fish, except breams; and those will feed much upon new grains
mixed with blood; so that if you will be at the charge of feeding them in
stews, like carps, you may have large breams in six or seven years, which
are a very slow grower, unless it be in springy waters.

One way of feeding fish is worth remembering, though not fit to be used
in waters that you ever look upon. It is laying a dead carrion upon
stakes in the middle of the water, and it will breed maggots, which
falling into the water, feed the fish very considerably; but I have not
proved it.

As for pikes, the best food to raise them up to an extraordinary fatness
is eels; and without them it is not to be done, but in a long time;
otherwise small perches are the best meat you can give them. And the
common opinion, that pikes will not eat perches, because of their armed
backs, is a great mistake, as I have found by certain experience. Breams
put into a pike-pond, will breed exceedingly, and are good enough to
maintain pikes, who will take care they shall not increase overmuch. And
the great fry of roaches and rouds that come from the greater waters,
removed into the quarters of your pikes, will be good diet for them.

Pikes in all waters, and carps in hungry springy waters, being fed at
certain times, will come up and take their meat almost from your hand;
and it is diverting enough to see the greediness and striving that will
be amongst them for the good bits, and the boldness, that by constant and
regular feeding, they will come to.


_Of disposing your Increase of Fish._

This care presseth when you employ your great waters; and unless you
have projected beforehand how you shall dispose your fish, you will find
yourself in great disorder.

As for carps for the service of your house, and also tenches and perch
for winter, they are to be disposed into your stews. The rest of your
fish, except the fry, you may put into the great water, and in March or
April after, with flews or trammels, take out good quantities to recruit
your winter’s expence taken from your stews; the fry goes to your pikes,
except carps, tench, and perch, which may go to some of your auxiliary
waters to be raised, in order to become stores again when you want. And
if, after all, you find your stock too high, you must feed as I have
already discoursed.

But you may contrive to keep your stock within compass; for you may
enlarge the expence in your house, and gratify your family and friends
that visit you, with a dish as acceptable as any you can purchase for
money; or you may oblige your friends and neighbours, by making presents
of them, which, from the countryman to the king, is well taken; for many
that have waters, not being in a method of husbanding them, as well
as others that have none, want and desire fish, and look upon such a
present, as of a rarity, valuing it not by your plenty, but their own
scarcity. And where fish is plenty, it is a positive disgrace to appear
covetous of them, rather more than of venison, or any other thing; so
that presents are not only expedient, but necessary to be made by him
that professeth a mastery of fish.

Another way, more prudent, though in the account of shallow people,
less reputable, is that of selling. If there were any colour for
disreputation in that matter, I should bestow some words upon it; but
seeing it resides only among vain women, or women-like men, I let the
humour pass, and should as soon preach against the opinion of fairies
and Robin-Goodfellow, as that. Only by the way, I presume to advise the
censorious sparks to do nothing unjust; let their dealing be plain,
though in selling of horses, spend what is their own, provide for their
families, and be true to their friend; and after this, whether they sell
corn, cattle, conies, sheep, deer, horses, or fish, I will insure their
honour for a farthing. It is the truth and substance of things, and no
person’s opinion, that governs honour, which consists wholly in doing
what is truly just and good, and nothing otherwise.

This matter being dismissed, I proceed to direct the course to be taken
when you propose to sell. First contract with the person you deal with
for a quantity; which, if for sale to eat, will be by the measure of
so much per inch, for every inch above a foot; if for stores, then so
much per hundred, or dozen, between certain lengths, as between nine
and twelve, and seven and ten inches, to be delivered alive where it is
agreed.

This trade will be easy, if you are planted within forty miles of London,
which will take off quantities for retailing, else it will be hard to
find contractors; but for stores, there will be some always beginning in
fish, with whom you may deal; and so few will sedulously apply to the
conduct of their waters, as is necessary to a command of fish, you need
not fear the country will be over-stocked. If the humour of living in the
country once repossesseth the gentleman, there may be much more occasion
for stores than at present there is, because their seats are let to
tenants, and the waters uncultivated.

When you have contracted, you are at a certainty, and may proceed; for
it is a great inconvenience to take and carry fish, and then be paid
with a wrangle; therefore let your terms be certain, and you can have no
dispute, because all is to be declared by measure.

You will find your stews and auxiliary waters of great use to you upon
such occasions; for you clap in what fish you please for fourteen or
fifteen days; for instance, five or six hundred carps to a brace of
stews, and they take no harm: if they continue longer, it is but feeding
them until they are fetched or carried away.


_Of fishing for Carriage._

As for the particular ways and methods of taking fish, such as I have
dealt in, is at present besides my design, though I may not perhaps
altogether pass it by, so much as concerns the carriage of fish, which I
look upon as a considerable item in the managery as to profit, which I
principally aim at, I shall now observe.

When your fishing is in order to remove far, whether the waters are great
or small, it must be done in winter, between the first of October, and
the last of March; and the colder the weather is, the better. One great
caution is, not to handle, or any way to batter or bruise them; for it
is a great truth, and common sense speaks it, that fish battered and
bruised, will not thrive upon transplanting, so well as others; therefore
when your pond is drawn, and you come to the fish, take them out of the
water with hoop-nets fixed upon staves about ten feet long, and ten or
twelve fish at a time in a net is sufficient, though but a foot long;
more, by their weight and struggling, will damage each other insensibly,
so as to hinder their growth and thrift, and perhaps be the cause that
many die. Let the fish be as little out of the water as may be; for
when fouled, and almost choaked with mud, they will clean and recover
themselves with water, which freshen upon them often, till you come to
put them up for carriage.

If you fish with nets, and make a great draught, as probably you will
when the water is low, be not hasty to draw the fish upon the ground, but
secure them by taking the lead line upon the ground, and holding up the
cork line, and so let them stir a little, they will be the cleaner; and
then take them out with hoop-nets, as before. And if there be occasion
to keep them any time out of the water, let it be upon the grass, when
there is no sun, or else in the shade, for heat is the greatest enemy to
the life of fish out of water that can be.

The best vessel for conveyance (if you carry above twenty miles) is a
great tun that holds five hogsheads; but if no more than ten, fifteen,
or twenty miles, ordinary hogsheads will do well enough. I know by
experience you may safely carry three hundred carps, six and seven
inches long, in one hogshead; but from seven to a foot, not so many by a
fourth part. If they exceed a foot, then not above seventy or eighty in
a hogshead. Let every hogshead have ten or twelve pails of fresh clean
water (not well-water), every six or seven miles, if it may be had. There
is no need of any great liberty for the fish, if their water be fresh,
and often renewed; for one great use of the water is to bury the fish,
that with mere weight they might not crush and destroy one another.

When you are arrived at the place of discharge, pour the fish into an
hoop-net a few at a time, and dispose them forthwith where they are
designed; and with this care you will scarce lose a fish.

Some use to put up fish in baskets or hampers for carriage, stowing them
with grass between; but this is not so good as water, for the grass
cleaving to the slime of the fish, rubs and cleans it from the scales;
which done, a carp scarce ever thrives after. And although perhaps the
fish may live, they will not grow or thrive, because their natural slime,
scarce recoverable, is rubbed off; and for the same reason, it is not
good to let carps lie at all in grass, but keep them always in water, to
preserve them from bruises, and losing their slime.


_Of Nurseries to Ponds and Fish._

Generally speaking, the fresher air and cleaner soil your water hath, the
better fish thrive. Wood of any sort near the water is bad, not only from
its hindering the wind and sun from purifying the water, but from the
leaves falling in, and rotten wood; both which are pernicious to fish.
But osiers and willows may be allowed of, without much inconvenience.
Oak boards, or timber laid in water, as sometimes is done to season,
will in all probability destroy all your fish; and likewise hemp laid
to rot; all which are therefore to be avoided. Dung-hills, stables, or
cow-houses, permitted to drain into ponds, are very ill neighbours, and
most especially wash-houses, which certainly spoil a standing water.


_Of Frosts, and the Ways to save the Fish in them._

The great plague and bane of fish in moats, great and small, and other
little standing waters, are great and sharp frosts. I have used all the
tricks that I have heard of, which are not a few, or could devise, to
save my fish in such waters; and yet in ten years time I have lost three
or four thousand carps. But yet I have found ways to save the life of
many a fair carp, when my neighbours have lost all; which I shall declare
as my own experience, and may be profitable upon like occasions to any
that will use them.

First, as to the sorts of fish that suffer most, I can only say, that
the tench, if any, is frost-proof, and will shift in extremity; but if
the frost be intense and long, the other sorts, as carps, eels, pike,
perch, and roach, will go near to perish; and I have found not any great
difference of hardness, but when one fish complains, they are all in
imminent danger.

The waters most obnoxious to frosts are such as are standing, shallow, or
small. For if there be either a water-current, or a fresh spring, no fish
dies for frost. If an hard winter succeeds a very dry summer, the fish
suffers most. If the ponds are large and deep, such as I have directed to
be made upon the channel of water, which may not run but upon floods or
rain, the fish will never die in frost there; but such waters you must
look upon as the asylum for the securing the fish in extremity; and all
that you can put in there alive, though through a hole in the ice, will
certainly live. If the bank of a pond sews, it will preserve the fish in
frost; the reason, as I imagine, is, because where the water sews out,
the air will bubble in, which relieves the fish; or perhaps it might put
the water into some degree of motion. If so, the stirring water with a
board flat upon a pole put under the ice, might do good; but this is
conjecture.

The symptom of mortality to your fish in time of frost, is, their shewing
themselves; which if you perceive in the least, conclude all are going;
and without a thaw, that water will not keep them alive. For it is the
nature of fish in cold weather to lie as close and deep as they can; so
that nothing but the pangs of death shall make them move. If no holes are
broke, they will rise and stick to the ice, and be frozen to it; if there
be holes, they will move about them, as if they came up for fresh air.

When the frost hath continued long, and hard, that you begin to suspect
your fish, you may make a trial by cutting holes in several places, some
in the middle, and some by the sides of the waters that are obnoxious;
that is, after about ten days freezing; and by the appearing of the
fish, or not, you shall discover the temper and condition they are in;
therefore watch them diligently. If they are not well, they will appear;
then prepare all hands to take out every fish, as near as you can; for
what you take out, you may preserve, and all that are left behind, are
probably lost.

Many use to break holes to relieve the fish, and, as they think, give
them fresh air; some have put dung bound up together into the holes, as
if the warmth of that keeping the hole open would preserve the fish;
but these ways, and all others that I have heard of, except taking out
the fish, are mere vanities. I have cut many holes, and large ones,
and employed men to take out the ice, and keep them open, but to no
advantage. One thing appeared very oddly to me, when I took that course.
Many of the fish in a large moat had gathered together in a corner
obverted to the South, where the ground rose under an high bank, to a
shoal-water. These fish, by their motion and heat, together with the
sun’s heat, that was strongest there, kept the water from freezing, and
I could plainly see every fish, great and small. There were carp, pike,
perch, eels, and fry in abundance, collected as if it had been a general
counsel of all the orders of fish, met to consider what was to be done in
that extremity, very diverting to observe.

But to leave conceits, and come to the only expedient which I have found
effectual to save the fish in this case; and that is, to set great tubs
or fats full of water in some outhouse, not far from a fire; and as fast
as the fish appear, take them out, and put them there; and from thence
you may convey them in a basket to your great waters, where you may make
an hole at about eight feet deep, and putting the fish in, preserve them;
or if you please, you may keep them there, freshening the water every
twelve hours, until the frost breaks, and put them into their own houses
again. You may plainly perceive how the fish, though stunned and numb
with the frost, coming into the fat, will by degrees recover, and be
perfectly well again; and thus you may keep them five weeks, or longer,
if the frost continues.

I have gone farther: sometimes fish have been to all appearance dead,
others frozen and inveloped in ice, yet by this method I have preserved
them; for heating water, and putting it into the fat, until I brought
the water there to a Midsummer heat, and then I have put such fish in,
with their shell of ice upon them, and in six or seven hours the ice was
gone, and the fish alive and well; and so I have delivered them to my
great waters, brisk as any.

This may seem strange, but it is most true, and to be attested, if need
were; therefore in frost use this and no other means, for all else will
prove but labour in vain.

In small waters, where is the greatest danger of frost, observe never
to put in stock, but the last week of February, or beginning of March;
for then they take less hurt in removing, and they may be taken out in
October after, and so all hazard of frost prevented; and if you venture
them there one winter, be sure never let them run the hazard of another.
So you have two summers feed, which will raise a carp from store to the
table, and venture but one winter’s frost; and in winter they neither
feed nor grow any thing considerable.


_Of the ordinary Benefits and Improvements by Fish._

These were touched when I spoke of disposing the increase of fish; that
is, furnishing your table, obliging your friends, and raising money. I
shall only add to the last, that it is most reasonable, if it can be
contrived, that pleasures pay for the charge of them. Then what is more
justifiable, than to make ponds yield a profit to answer the great
charge in making them?

But we must go farther: ground shall be vastly improved by fish, and
shall be intrinsically worth, and yield more this way, than by any other
employment you can give it: for suppose it meadow of two pounds per acre
(which is an high value for the best meadow far from London), I will
justify, that four acres in pond shall return you every year one thousand
carps fed up, from — to fourteen or fifteen inches, besides pikes, perch,
and tench, and other fry, useful on many accounts, if the water suits
them. The carps are saleable, and will bring perhaps twelve pence, but in
all likelihood not less than nine pence; yet, let it be six pence apiece,
there is twenty-five pounds, which is six pounds five shillings per acre;
a little charge of carriage perhaps to be deducted. This is improvement
enough.

But lay aside profit, and consider how a gentleman should entertain
himself and his family, which I must suppose every one hath, who lives
upon an estate, and it may be numerous; he must find some sort of
diversion for them. Must it be altogether going abroad to make, or at
home receiving visits? Or if the female part are so grave, to decline
that course of life, must they always be within? Or if they stir out,
have nothing but mere air to invite them? Perhaps the gentleman himself
may find diversion by hunting, &c. and meeting company upon several
diverting accounts; and shall all his entertainments be exclusive of his
family? No, certainly; whoever aims at an easy and satisfactory course
of life, must seek that his family, as well as himself, be pleased: and
if he doth not order it so that they shall be entertained, it is ten to
one they will find such entertainments as shall not be very grateful to
him; therefore there is advantage enough in the mastery of fish, from the
diversion, not to speak of the employment that it brings to a family.
Young people love angling extremely; then there is a boat, which gives
pleasure enough in summer, frequent fishing with nets, the very making of
nets, seeing the waters, much discourse of them, and the fish, especially
upon your great sweeps, and the strange surprizes that will happen in
numbers and bigness, with many other incident entertainments, are the
result of waters, and direct the minds of a numerous family to terminate
in something not inconvenient, and, it may be, divert them from worse.
Parks, bowling-greens, and billiard-tables, are of the same design; but
it will be easily granted, this of fish is beyond them all.

If it be said, that this is not a pleasure, it is all care and pains,
especially to him that is the master, who must be perpetually vexed at
the negligence and blockishness of servants, that will never perform
what he expects and orders: I answer, that is a good reason for leaving
the world. The plague of servants is the same in all business, wherein
you use and depend upon them; therefore, to be rid of it, give away
your estate, retire, and be an hermit: and even then you shall find the
gnawing of your own mind a more perverse evil, than all the business,
servants, with the crosses and vexations attending them. We were not
made perfect, but must live in perpetual disease; the only point is,
which way to lessen it; and that must be by employment, which diverts the
sense of our innate misery. What can be a greater torture, than to live
chained to a bed, though the best in the world, and have no company nor
business? Therefore court business, if you would pass for an epicurean,
and let it be such as brings comfort to nature, and not pain and torment
in the consequence; that is to say, lawful, profitable, obliging, and
temperate. So you avoid offending the publick, increase your store, win
your friends and family, and preserve your health; all which, I take it,
are accomplished, in great measure, by the mastery of fish.

Now, as to the vending of fish, observe that it is best to be content
with the market price, as you can find it, as most are for other vendible
commodities; and for carps between thirteen or fourteen, or sixteen
inches, measuring from nose-end to tail-end, twelve pence is a good
price; selling to the nobility or gentry, may produce one penny more, and
may measure up to seventeen; but never promise above twenty turned of
sixteen in twelve score.


_Of Benefits, besides the main Design._

These are many, and not inconsiderable; as first, when you make a great
water, you take the first spit of the ground upon which the bank is to
stand, and from the pan of the pond. In case you take earth there for the
bank, and this you carry to some place where it is most easily removed
upon your tillage-ground, and there let it lie to rot the sod, and then
there is not a better manure, and more than pays the charge of digging
and carrying it.

2. You gain the making of stews, and, it may be, other ponds for the
convenience of your cattle, all under one charge: for if you must dig
clay and earth for your bank, it is as easily taken where it doth this,
as otherwise.

3. If the soil about the waters be any thing moorish, it may be planted
with osiers, which yield a certain yearly crop.

4. The feed of the pond when laid dry, or the corn, that is, oats, which
you may have upon the bottom, though mere mud, is very considerable. This
hath been touched before.

5. You will invite all manner of help to your fishing, by the fry given
among those who assist you; and though you pay them, they will expect
fish; and with expectations of carrying home a dish of fresh fish, men
will work in wet and dirt, to a wonder, without other pay.

6. If you graze cattle near your great waters, they will delight to
come and stand in the water; and it conduceth much to the thrift of
your cattle, as well as the feed of your fish, which is much supplied
by the dunging of the cattle; and therefore it is good to have ponds in
cow-pastures and grazing grounds.

As to the sowing of oats in the bottom of a pond, observe to dry your
great water once in three, or at most four years, and that at the end of
January, or beginning of March; which, if not a very unreasonable year,
will be time enough. After Michaelmas following, you may put in a very
great stock; and thin them in following years, as the feed will decline.


_The Conclusion._

Thus I have given, as short and intelligibly as conveniently I could, the
best of my knowledge, contracted by twenty years practice and experience,
of fish and waters: and if I am so happy thereby, to contribute in the
least to the satisfaction or diversion of my friends, it will extremely
content, if not encourage me to add somewhat farther concerning the
nature of the several sorts of fish I deal in, the ways of taking them,
of nets, angling, engines for clearing waters, and other particularities
that I have proved. In the mean time, they may command these as myself,
both being alike open, considerable, and at their service.



INDEX.


    The Barbel                                             Page 5

    Carp                                                        7

    The Chub                                                   11

    The Cod Fish                                               13

    The Haddock                                                14

    The Herring                                                16

    The Mackarel                                               20

    The Mullet                                                 21

    The Pearch, or Perch,                                      23

    The Pike                                                   24

    The Roach                                                  25

    The Shad                                                   26

    The Tench                                                  28

    The Trout                                                  29

    The Whiting                                                31

    A Discourse of Fish and Fish Ponds                         33

    Of the Situation and Disposition of the Principal Waters   35

    Of the Manner of making and raising Pond Heads             33

    The Dimensions of Pond Heads                               34

    Of securing your Banks                                     35

    Of Sluices                                                 37

    Of the Manner of Working to raise a Pond Head              39

    Of Auxiliary Waters                                        42

    Of Stews                                                   43

    Of Moats                                                   45

    Of other Auxiliary Waters                                  49

    The Course of laying the great Waters dry                  51

    Of Breeding of Fish                                        53

    The Manner of Stocking Waters                              55

    Of the Manner of feeding Fish                              60

    Of disposing your Increase of Fish                         64

    Of fishing for Carriage                                    66

    Of Nurseries to Ponds and Fish                             69

    Of Frosts, and the Way to save the Fish in them            ib.

    Of the ordinary Benefits and Improvements by Fish          73

    Of Benefits besides the main Design                        76

    The Conclusion                                             78


_FINIS._



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