from fo remote a fpot as our Sandwich: | Wales, are trouts called coch y dail, marked but there was, and is a fashion in the article with red and black spots as big as fix pences; of good living. The Romans feem to have others unspotted, and of a reddish hue; that defpifed the trout, the piper, and the doree; fometimes weigh near ten pounds, but are bad and we believe Mr. Quin himself would have tafted. refined the rich paps of a pregnant fow †, the heels of camels, and the tongues of fla-call there buddages, which I was told fomemingos §, though dreffed by Heliogabalas's times weighed thirty pounds; but it was not cooks for a good jowl of falmon with lobfter- my fortune to fee any during my stay in the fauce. neighbourhood of that vaft water. When Aufonius fpeaks of this fish, he makes no euloge on its gordncf, but celebrates it only for its beauty. Purpureifque SALAR ftellatus tergore guttis. With purple spots the SALAR'S back is ftain'd. Thefe marks point out the fpecies he intended: what he meant by his fario is not fo eafy to determine: whether any fpecies of trout, of a fize between the falar and the falmon; or whether the falmon itself, at a certain age, is not very evident. Teque inter geminos fpecies, neutrumque et utrumque, Qui nec dum SALMO, nec SALAR ambiguufque, A doubtful kind, that may be one or either, In Lough Neagh, in Ireland, are trouts Trouts (probably of the fame fpecies) are alfo taken in Hulfe-water, a lake in Cumber land, of a much fuperior fize to thofe of Louga Neagh. Thefe are fuppofed to be the fame with the trout of the lake of Geneva, a fith I have eaten more than once, and think but a very indifferent one. In the river Eynion, not far from Machynlleth, in Merioneththire, and in one of the Snowdon lakes, are found a variety of trout, which are naturally deformed, having a strange crookedness near the tail, refembling that of the perch before defcribed. We dwell the lefs on thefe monstrous productions, as our friend the Hon. Daines Barrington, has already given an account of them in an ingeni ous differtation on fome of the Cambrian fith, published in the Philofophical Tranfactions of the year 1767. The ftomachs of the common trouts are uncommonly thick and mufcular. They feed on the shell-fifh of lakes and rivers. as well as on fmall fith. They likewife take into their ftomachs gravel, er In fact, the colours of the trout, and its fpots, vary greatly in different waters, and infmall ftones, to affift in comminuting the todifferent featons; yet each may be reduced taceous parts of their food. The trops of to one fpecies. In Llyndivi, a lake in South certain lakes in Ireland, fuch as thofe of th province of Galway, and fome others, are remarkable for the great thickness of their fo machs, which, from fome flight resemblance to the organs of digeftion in birds, have been called gizzards: the Irish name the fpecies *Juvenal Sat. V. 141. Martial, Lib. XIII. Epig. 44. thas mouth and tongue, as s the cafe with the whofe genius, except the gwyniad, which is toothlefs, and the grayling, which has none on its tongue. The back was dufky; the fides tinged with a purplish bloom, marked with deep purple fpots, mixed with black, above and below the fide line which was ftrait: the belly white.' that has them, Gillaroo trouts. These ftomachs are fometimes ferved up to table, under the former appellation. It does not appear to me, that the extraordinary ftrength of ftomach in the Irish fith, fhould give any fufpicion that it is a distinct fpecies: the nature of the waters might incrcafe the thickness; or the fuperior quantity of theil-fifh, which may more frequently call for the ufe of its comminuting powers than thofe of our trouts, might occafion this difference. I had oppor-rious fin brown, tipped with red; the pectunity of comparing the ftomach of a great toral, ventral, and anal fins, of a pale brown; Gillaron trout, with a large one from the the edge of the anal fin white, the tail very Uxbridge river. The laft, if I recollect, was little forked when extended. fmailer, and out of season; and its stomach (notwithstanding it was very thick) was much inferior in ftrength to that of the former: but on the whole, there was not the least specific difference between the two fubiects. Trouts are most voracious fith, and afford excellent diverfion to the angler: the pallion for the sport of angling is fo great in the neighbourhood of London, that the liberty of fishing in fome of the ftreams in the adjacent counties, is purchased at the rate of ten pounds per annum. These fish fhift their quarters to spawn, and like falinon, make up towards the heads of rivers to depofit their roes. The under jaw of the trout is fubject, at certain times, to the fame curvature as that of the falmon. A trout taken in Llynallet, in Denbighfhire, which is famous for an excellent kind, measured feventeen inches, its depth three and three quarters, its weight one pound ten ounces: the head thick; the nofe rather thirp: the upper jaw a little longer than the lower; both jaws, as well as the head, were of a pale brown, blotched with black: the teeth flarp and ftrong, difpofed in the jaws, roof of the The firft dorfal fin was fpotted; the fpu $25. The PIKE or JACK. The pike is common in most of the lakes of Europe, but the largest are thofe taken in Lapland, which, according to Schæffer, are fometimes eight feet long. They are taken there in great abundance, dried, and exported for tais. The largeft fish of this kind which we ever heard of in England, weighed thirtyfive pounds. According to the common faving, thefe fish were introduced into England in the reign of Henry VIII. in 1537. They were fo rare, that a pike was fold for double the price of a houfc-lamb in February, and a pickerel for more than a fat capon. All writers who treat of this fpecies bring inftances of its vaft voraciouinef. We have known one that was cloaked by attempting to fwallow one of its own species that proved too large a morfel. Yet its laws are very loofcly connected; and have on each fide an additional bone like the jaw of a riper, which renders them capable of grener diftention when it iwallows its prey. It does not contine itT Q felf to feed on fish and frogs; it will devour the water rat, and draw down the young ducks as they are swimming about. In a manufcript note which we found, p. 244, of our copy of Plott's Hiftory of Stafordshire, is the following extraordinary fact: "At Lord "Gower's canal at Trentham, a pike feized "the head of afwan as the was feeding under "water, and gorged fo much of it as killed "them both. The fervants perceiving the “fwan with its head under water for a longer "time than ufual, took the boat, and found "both fwan and pike dead"." But there is inftances of its fiercenefs ftill more furprising, and which indeed border a little on the marvellous. Gefner + relates, that a famished pike in the Rhone seized on the lips of a mule that was brought to water, and that the beaft drew the fish out before it could difengage itfelf. That people have been bit by thefe voracious creatures while they were wathing their legs, and that they will even contend with the otter for its prey, and endeavour to force it out of its mouth. Small fish fhew the fame uneafiness and deteftation at the prefence of this tyrant, as the little birds de at the fight of the hawk or owl. When the pike lies dormant near the furface (as is frequently the cafe) the leffer fish are often obferved to fwim around in vaft numbers, and in great anxiety. Pike are often haltered in a noofe, and taken while they lie thus a fleep, as they are often found in the ditches near the Thames, in the month of May. *This note we afterwards difcovered was wrote by Mr. Plott, of Oxford, who affured me he inferted it on good authority. + Gefner pifc. 5°3. In the fhallow water of the Lincolnshire fens they are frequently taken in a manner peculiar, we believe, to that country, and the ifle of Ceylon. The fishermen make ufe of what is called a crown-net, which is no more than a hemifpherical basket, open at top and bottom. He stands at the end of one of the little fenboats, and frequently puts his basket down to the bottom of the water, then poking a ftick into it, discovers whether he has any booty by the ftriking of the fish; and vaft numbers of pike are taken in this manner. The longevity of this fith is very remarkable, if we may credit the accounts given of it. Rzaczynski tells us of one that was ninety years old; but Gefner relates, that in the year 1497, a pike was taken near Hailbrun, in Suabia, with a brazen ring affixed to it, on which were thefe words in Greek characters: I am the fifb which was first of all put into this lake by the hands of the governor of the universe, Frederick the fecond, the 5th of October, 1230: fo that the former must have been an infant to this Methufalem of a fish. Pikes fpawn in March or April, according to the coldness or warmth of the weather. When they are in high season their colours are very fine, being green spotted with bright yellow; and the gills are of a most vivid and full red. When out of feason, the green changes to grey, and the yellow spots turn pale. The head is very flat; the upper jaw broad, and is shorter than the lower: the under jaw turns up a little at the end, and is marked with minute punctures. The teeth are very fharp, difpofed only in the front of the upper jaw, but in both sides of the lower, in the roof of the mouth, and often the the tongue. The flit of the mouth, or the gape, is very wide; the eyes fmall. The dorfal fin is placed very low on the back, and confifts of twenty-one rays; the pectoral of fifteen; the ventral of eleven; the anal of eighteen. The tail is bifurcated. 26. The CARP. This is one of the naturalized fish of our country, having been introduced here by Leonard Mafchal, about the year 1514 to whom we were alfo indebted for that excellent apple the pepin. The many good things that our island wanted before that period, are enumerated in this old diftitch: Turkies, carps, hops, pickerel, and beer, As to the two laft articles we have fome doubts, the others we believe to be true. Ruffia wants thefe fifh at this day; Sweden has them only in the ponds of the people of fafhion; Polish Pruffia is the chief feat of the carp; they abound in the rivers and lakes of that country, particularly in the Frisch and Curifch-haff, where they are taken of a vaft fize. They are there a great article of commerce, and fent in well-boats to Sweden and Ruffia. The merchants purchase them out of the waters of the nobleffe of the country, who draw a good revenue from this article. Neither are they wanting among our gentry, inftances of fome who make good profit of their ponds. The ancients do not feparate the carp from the fea fish. We are credibly informed that *Fuller's British Worthies, Suffex. 113. they are fometimes found in the harbour of Dantzick, between the town and a small place called Hela. Carp are very long lived. Gefner brings an inftance of one that was an hundred years old. They alfo grow to a very great fize. On our own knowledge we can fpeak of none that exceeded twenty pounds in weight: but Jovius fays, that they were fometimes taken in the Lacus Larius (the Lago di Como) of two hundred pounds weight; and Rzaczynski mentions others taken in the Dniefter that were five feet in length. They are alfo extremely tenacious of life, and will live for a moft remarkable time out of water. An experiment has been made by placing a carp in a net, well rapped up in wet mofs, the mouth only remaining out, and then hung up in a cellar, or fome cool place: the fish is frequently fed with white bread and milk, and is befides often plunged into water. Carp thus managed have been known, not only to have lived above a fortnight, but to grow exceeding y fat, and far fuperior in tafte to thofe that are immediately killed from the pond †. The carp is a prodigious breeder: its quantity of roe has been fometimes found fo great, that when taken out and weighed against the fish itfeif, the former has been found to preponderate. From the fpawn of this fish caviare is made for the Jews, who hold the fturgeon in abhorrence. These fish are extremely cunning, and on that account are by fome ftyled the river for. They will fometimes leap over the nets, and efcape that way; at others, will immerfe themselves fo deep in the mud, as to let the net pafs over them. They are alfo very fhy of taking a bait; yet at the fpawning time they are fo fimple, as to fuffer themselves to be tickled, handled, and caught by any body that will attempt it. This fith is apt to mix its milt with the roc of other fith, from which is produced a fpurious breed: we have feen the offspring of the carp and tench, which bore the greatest refemblance to the firft: have alfo heard of the fame mixture between the carp and bream. The carp is of a thick fhape: the fcales very large, and when in beft icafon of a fine gilded hue. The jaws are of equal length; there are two teeth in the jaws, or on the tongue; but at the entrance of the gallet, above and below, are curtain bones that act on each other, and comminute the food before it paffes down. On each fide of the mouth is a fingle beard; above those on each fide another, but fhorter: tite dorful fin extends far towards the tail, which is a little bifurcated; the third ray of the doufal fin is very strong, and armed with kerp teeth, pointing downwards; the third rav of the anal fin is constructed in the fame manner. $27. The BAREEL. This 6th was fo extremely coarfe, as to b. oval cd by the ancients till the time of Aubul is, and what he fays is no panegyric! on it; for ne lets us know it loves deep waters, and that when it grows old it was not abfolutely bad. Laxos exerces BARBE natatas, Tu melior pejore ævo, tibi contigit uni Spirantum ex numero non inlaudata fenectus. It frequents the ftill and deep parts of rivers, and lives in focicty, roting like fwine with their nofes in the foft banks. It is fo tame as to fuffer itfelf to be taken with the hand; and people have been known to take numbers by diving for them. In fummer they move about during night in fearch of food, but towards autumn, and during winter, confine themselves to the deepoft holes. They are the worst and coarfeft of fresh water fith, and feldom eat but by the poorer fort of people, who fometimes boil them with a bit of bacon to give them a relish. The toe is very noxious, affecting those who unwarily eat of it with a naufea, vomiting, purging, and a flight fwelling, It is fometimes found of the length of three feet, and eighteen pounds in weight: it is of a long and rounded form: the feaies not large. Its head is fimooth: the noftrils placed near the eyes; the mouth is placed below: on each comer is a fingle beard, and another on each fide the nose. The dorsal fin is armed with a remarkable ftrong spine, fharply ferrated, with which it can inflict a very fevere wound on the incautious handler, and even do much damage to to the nets. The pectoral fins are of a pale brown colour; the ventral and anal tipped with yell. w; the tail a little bifurcated, and of a deep purple: the fide line is ftrait. The fcales are of a pale gold colour, edged with black: the belly is white. |