The share of life which some fish possess, is worthy the notice of every curious angler.-The eel, being cut in pieces, retains life and motion for several hours. A carp will move vigorously some time after the intestines are taken out of its body; but I shall say more on several of these heads in treating of each particular species of fish.

Fish, considered as a food, make a considerable addition to the furniture of the table; and the breeding, feeding, &c. thereof, is a peculiar art, and it is very necessary, for the sake of economy, that every country gentleman should know something of the method. To this relate the ponds, stews, &c. which shall be described in their proper places.

It may not be here unacceptable to give the reader some general rules on the subject.

RULE I.

FOR BREEDING FISHES.

THE quality of the pond, water, &c. proper to this end, is scarcely determinable by any certain symptom or rule: for some very promising ponds do not prove serviceable that way. One of the best indications of a breeding pond, is when there is a good store of rushes and grazing about it, which gravelly shoals, such as horseponds, usually have; so that when a water takes thus to breeding, with a few Milters and Spawners, two or three of each, a whole country may be stocked in a short time. Eels and perches are of a very good use to keep down the stock of fish; for they prey much upon the spawn and fry of bred fish, and will probably destroy the

superfluity of them. As for pikes, tenches, roaches, perches, &c. they are observed to breed almost in any waters, and very numerously; but eels never breed in standing waters that are without springs, and in such are neither found, nor increase by putting in; yet where springs are, they are never wanting, though not put in.

With respect to the growth of fishes, it is observed, that among Carps particularly, the first year they grow to about the size of a leaf of a willow-tree; and at two years they are about four inches long. They grow but one inch more the third season, which is five inches. Those of four years old are about six inches; and seven after the fifth. From that to eight years old they are found to be large, in proportion to the goodness of the pond, from eight to twelve inches..

RULE II.

FOR FEEDING FISHES

Observe the following remarks:

1. In a Stew thirty or forty carps may be kept from October to March without feeding; and by fishing with trammels or flews, in March or April, you may take from your great waters to recruit your stews; but you must not fail to feed them all the summer, from March to October again, as constantly as cropped chickens are fed; and it will prove profitable.

2. The constancy and regularity of serving the fish, conduces very much to their eating well and thriving.

3. Any sort of grain boiled is good to feed with, especially pease and malt coarse ground :

the grains after brewing, while sweet and fresh, are very proper; but one bushel of malt, not brewed, will go as far as two of grains; chippings of bread, and orts of a table, steeped in tapdroppings of strong beer, or ale, are excellent food for carp. Of these the quantity of two quarts to thirty carps is sufficient; and so fed morning and evening, is better than once a day only.

There is a sort of food for fishes, that may be called accidental, and is no less improving than the best that can be provided; and this is when the pools happen to receive the waste of commons where sheep have pasture; the water is enriched by the soil, and will feed a much greater number of carp than it otherwise would do; and further, the dung that falls from cattle standing in the water in hot weather, is also a very great nourishment to fish.

The best food to raise pikes to an extraordinary size or fatness, is eels: and without them is not to be done, but in a long time. Setting these aside, small perches are the best meat. Breams put into a pike pond, breed exceedingly, and are fit to maintain pikes; who will take care they do not increase over much. The numerous fry of roaches, and other small fish, which come from the greater pools into the pike quarters, will likewise be good diet for them. Pikes in all streams, and carp in all hungry springing waters, being fed at certain times, will come up, and take their meat almost from your hand.

The best feeding-place is towards the mouth of the pond, at the depth of about half a yard; for by that means the deep will be kept clean and neat; the meat thrown into the water, without other trouble, will be picked up by the fishes, and

nothing be lost: yet there are several devices for giving them food, especially pease; as a square board let down with the pease upon it.

Where fishes are fed in large pools or ponds, when their numbers are great, malt boiled, or fresh grains, is the best food. Thus carp may be fed and raised like capons, and tenches will feed as well, but perches are not for a stew in feeding time.

As to the benefits that redound from keeping fish, besides furnishing the table, and raising money, your land will be improved, so as to be really worth, and yield more this way than by any other employ whatsoever. For suppose a meadow of two pounds per acre; four acres in pond, will return every year a thousand fed carps, from the least size to fourteen or fifteen inches long; besides pike, perches, tenches, and other fry: the carps are saleable, and will bring sixpence, ninepence, and perhaps one shilling each, amounting in all to twenty-five pounds, which is six pounds five shillings per acre.

You should make choice of such a place for your pond, that it may be refreshed with a little rill, or with rain-water running or falling into it; by so doing fish are both more inclined to breed, and are refreshed and fed the better.

There are many circumstances that conduce much to the feeding of pikes, perches, chubs, carps, roaches, daces, and breams, particularly conveniency of harbour, for those fish that lie amongst weeds and boggy places are the fattest, though not the sweetest; in these kind of places they are secured from the assaults of their numerous enemies, and enjoy a more safe and contented repose; rest and quietness being as natural and helpful to their feeling as to other creatures.

Some waters are more nourishing than others; a thick kind, if it is not foul or muddy, is of a better consistency, and the parts better disposed, and qualified for nutrition than those of a more thin and rarified substance; no element that is pure, and without mixture, is well adapted for nourishment, neither can fishes live by pure water, respiration, or sucking in those slender particles of their beloved element alone, without the concurrence and assistance of some grosser and terrene qualities, which are intermingled with those liquid bodies.

Having mentioned that fishes are exposed to numerous enemies, I shall conclude this chapter by giving the reader a poetical enumeration of them.

A thousand foes the finny people chace,
Nor are they safe from their own kindred race:
The pike, fell tyrant of the liquid plain,
With rav'nous waste devours his fellow-train;
Yet, howsoe'er with raging famine pin'd,
The tench he spares, a salutary kind,
Hence too the perch, a like voracious brood,
Forbears to make this gen'rous race his food;
Tho' on the common drove no bound he finds,
But spreads unmeasur'd waste o'er all the kinds,
Nor less the greedy trout and gutless eel,
Incessant woes, and dire destruction deal.
The lurking water rat in caverns preys;
And in the weeds the wily otter slays.
The ghastly newt, in muddy streams annoys;
And in swift floods the felly snake destroys;
Toads, for the shoaling fry, forsake the lawn;
And croaking frogs devour the tender spawn.
Neither the 'habitants of land nor air,

(So sure their doom) the fishy numbers spare!
The swan,
fair regent of the silver tide,
Their ranks destroys, and spreads their ruin wide.
The duck her offspring to the river leads,

And on the destin'd fry insatiate feeds;