Page images
PDF
EPUB

§ 25. The PIKE or JACK. The pike is common in most of the lakes of Europe, but the largest are those taken in England, which, according to Schæffer, are fometimes eight feet long. They are taken there in great abundance, dried, and expofed for fale. The largest fifh of this kind which we ever heard of in England, weighed thirty-five pounds.

According to the common faying, 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 houfe-lamb in February, and a pickerel for more than a fat capon.

All writers who treat of this fpecies bring inftances of its vaft voracioufness. We have known one that was choaked by attempt ing to fwallow one of its own fpecies that proved too large a morfel. Yet its jaws are very loosely connected; and have on each fide an additional bone like the jaw of a viper, which renders them capable of greater diftention when it fwallows its prey. It does not confine itself 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 Staffordshire, is the following extraordinary fact: "At Lord Gower's "canal at Trentham, a pike feized the "head of a swan as fhe was feeding under "water, and gorged fo much of it as kil"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 are inftances of its fiercenefs ftill more furprising, and which indeed border a little on the marvellous. Gefner + relates, that a famifhed pike in the Rhone feized on the lips of a mule that was brought to water, and that the beast drew the fish out before it could difengage itfelf. That people have been bit by thefe voracious creatures while they were washing their Jegs, and that they will even contend with the otter for its prey, and endeavour to force it out of its mouth.

[ocr errors]

Small fifh fhew the fame uneasiness and deteftation at the prefence of this tyrant, as the little birds do at the fight of the hawk or owl. When the pike lies dormant near

*This note we afterwards difcovered was wrote by Mr. Plott, of Oxford, who affured me he inferted it on good authority, + Gelner pifc. 593.

the furface (as is frequently the cafe) the leffer fish are often obferved to fwim around it in vast numbers, and in great anxiety. Pike are often haltered in a noole, and taken while they lie thus afleep, as they are often found in the ditches near the Thames, in the month of May.

In the shallow 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 use of what is called a crown-net, which is no more than a hemifpherical basket, open at top and bottom. He ftands at the end of one of the little fenboats, and frequently puts his bafket down to the bottom of the water, then poking a flick into it, discovers whether he has any booty by the striking of the fish: and vaft numbers of pike are taken in this manner.

The longevity of this fish is very remarkable, if we may credit the accounts given of it. Rzazcynfki 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 these words in Greek characters: I am the fish which was first of all put into this lake by the hands of the governor of the univerfe, Frederick, the fecond, the 5th of October, 1230: fo that the former must have been an infant to this Methufalem of a fifh.

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 moft vivid and full red. When out of feafon, the green changes to grey, and the yellow fpots turn pale.

The head is very flat; the upper jaw broad, and is fhorter than the lower; the under jaw turns up a little at the end, and is marked with minute punctures.

The teeth are very tharp, difpofed only in the front of the upper jaw, but in both fides of the lower, in the roof of the mouth, and often the tongue, The flit of the mouth, or the gape, is very wide; the eyes small.

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.

[blocks in formation]

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 diftich:

Turkies, carps, hops, pickerel, and beer,
Came into England all in one year.

As to the two laft articles we have fome doubts, the others we believe to be true. Ruffia wants thefe fish at this day; Sweden has them only in the ponds of the people of fathion Polish Pruffia is the chief feat of the carp; they abound in the rivers and lakes of that country, particularly in the Frich and Curifch-haft, where they are taken of a valt fize. They are there a great article of commerce, and fent in well-boats to Sweden and Ruffia. The merchants purchafe them out of the waters of the nobleffe of the country, who draw a good revenue from this article. Neither are there want ing 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 they are fometimes found in the harbour of Dantzick, between the town and a fmall placed 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 speak of none that exceeded twenty pounds in weight; but Jovius fays, that they were sometimes taken in the Lacus Larius (the Lago di Como) of two hundred pounds weight; and Rzaczynski mentions others taken in the Dniester 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 wrapped 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 exceedingly fat, and far fuperior in tafte to those that are immediately killed from the pond +.

Fuller's British Worthies, Suffex, 113.

This was told me by a gentleman of the utmost veracity, who had twice made the experiment. The fame fact is related by that pious philofopher Doctor Derham, in his Phyfico-Theology, edit. 9th. 1737. ch. 1. p. 7. n.c.

The carp is a prodigious breeder: its quantity of roe has been fometimes found fo great, that when taken out and weighed againft the fish itfelf, the former has been found to preponderate. From the spawn. of this fith caviare is made for the Jews, who hold this fturgeon in abhorrence.

Thefe fish are extremely cunning, and on that account are by fome ftyled the river fox. They will fometimes leap over the nets, and escape that way; at others, will immerse themfelves 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 fifh is apt to mix its milt with the roe of other fish, from which is produced a fpurious breed: we have seen the offspring of the carp and tench, which bore the greatest resemblance to the firft: have also heard of the fame mixture between the carp and bream.

The carp is of a thick fhape: the scales very large, and when in bett season 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 gullet, above and below, are certain 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: the dorfal fin extends far towards the tail, which is a little bifurcated; the third ray of the dorsal fin is very strong, and armed with sharp teeth, pointing downwards; the third ray of the anal fin is conftructed in the fame manner.

$27. The BARBEL.

This fish was fo extremely coarfe, as to be overlooked by the ancients till the time of Aufonius, and what he fays is no panegyric on it; for he lets us know it loves deep waters, and that when it grows old it was not abfolutely bad.

Laxos exerces BARBE natatus,
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 fociety, rooting like fwine with their nofes in the foft banks. It is fo tame as to fuffer itself to be taken with the hand; and people have been known to 4 A 4

take

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 deepest holes.

They are the worst and coarseft of fresh water fish, 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 roe is very noxious, affecting thofe 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 scales not large.

Its head is fmooth: the noftrils placed near the eyes: the mouth is placed below: on each corner is a fingle beard, and another on each fide the nose.

The dorsal fin is armed with a remarkable ftrong fpine, fharply ferrated, with which it can inflict a very fevere wound on the incautious handler, and even do much damage to the nets.

The pectoral fins are of a pale brown colour; the ventral and anal tipped with yellow the tail a little bifurcated, and of a deep purple: the fide line is strait.

The fcales are of a pale gold colour, edged with black: the belly is white.

28. The TENCH.

The tench underwent the fame fate with the barbel, in respect to the notice taken of it by the early writers; and even Aufonius, who firft mertions it, treats it with fuch difrefpect as evinces the great capricioufnefs of tafte; for that fifh, which at prefent is held in fuch good repute, was in his days the repaft only of the canaille.

Quis non et virides vulgi folatia Tincas
Norit?

It has been by fome called the Phyfician of the fish, and that the flime is healing, that the wounded apply it as a ftyptic. The ingenious Mr. Diaper, in his pifcatory eclogues, fays, that even the voracious pike will fpare the tench on account of its healing powers:

The Tench he fpares a medicinal kind:
For when by wounds diftreft, or fore disease,
He courts the falutary fish for eafe;
Close to his fcales the kind physician glides,
And fweats a healing balfam from his fides.

Ecl. II.

Whatever virtue its flime may have to the inhabitants of the water, we will not

vouch for, but its flesh is a wholesome and delicious food to thofe of the earth. The Germans are of a different opinion. By way of contempt, they call it Shoemaker. Gefner even fays, that it is infipid and unwholesome.

It does not commonly exceed four or five pounds in weight, but we have heard of one that weighed ten pounds; Salvianus fpeaks of fome that arrived at twenty pounds.

They love ftill waters, and are rarely found in rivers: they are very foolish, and eafily caught.

The tench is thick and fhort in proportion to its length: the fcales are very small, and covered with flime.

The irides are red: there is fometimes, but not always, a fmall beard at each corner of the mouth.

The colour of the back is dufky; the dorfal and ventral fins of the fame colour: the head, fides, and belly, of a greenith caft, most beautifully mixed with gold, which is in its greateft fplender when the fish is in the highest feafon.

The tail is quite even at the end, and very broad.

$29. The GUDGEON.

Ariftotle mentions the gudgeon in two places; once as a river fifh, and again as a fpecies that was gregarious: in a third place he defcribes it as a fea fifh: we muft therefore confider the Keeps he mentions, lib. ix. c. 2. and lib. viii. c. 19. as the fame with our fpecies.

This fifh is generally found in gentle ftreams, and is of a small fize: those few, however, that are caught in the Kennet, and Cole, are three times the weight of those taken elsewhere. The largelt we ever heard of was taken near Uxbridge, and weighed half a pound.

They bite eagerly, and are affembled by raking the bed of the river; to this fpot they immediately crowd in fhoals, expecting food from this difturbance.

The fhape of the body is thick and round the irides tinged with red; the gill covered with green and filver: the lower jaw is fhorter than the upper: at each corner of the mouth is a fingle beard: the back olive, spotted with black: the fide line ftrait; the fides beneath that filvery: the belly white.

The tail is forked; that, as well as the dorfal fin, is fpotted with black.

$30. The BREAM.

The bream is an inhabitant of lakes, or the deep parts of ftill rivers. It is a fish that is very little efteemed, being extremely infipid.

It is extremely deep, and thin in proportion to its length. The back rifes very much, and is very sharp at the top. The head and mouth are fmall: on fome we examined in the spring, were abundance of minute whitish tubercles; an accident which Pliny feems to have obferved befals the fish of the Lago Maggiore, and Lago di Como. The fcales are very large: the

fides flat and thin.

The dorsal fin has eleven rays, the fecond of which is the longeft: that fin, as well as all the reft, are of a dusky colour; the back of the fame hue: the fides yel

lowish.

The tail is very large, and of the form of a crefcent.

$31. The CRUCIAN.

This fpecies is common in many of the fish ponds about London, and other parts of the fouth of England; but I believe is not a native fish.

It is very deep and thick: the back is much arched: the dorsal fin confifts of nineteen rays; the two firft ftrong and Eferrated. The pectoral fins have (each) thirteen rays; the ventral nine; the anal feven or eight: the lateral line parallel with the belly: the tail almost even at the end.

The colour of the fish in general is a deep yellow the meat is coarfe, and little esteemed.

$32. The ROACH.

Sound as a roach,' is a proverb that appears to be but indifferently founded, that fish being not more diftinguished for its vivacity than many others; yet it is ufed by the French as well as us, who compare people of strong health to their gardon, our roach.

It is a common fish, found in many of our deep ftill rivers, affecting, like the others of this genius, quiet waters. It is gregarious, keeping in large fhoals. We have never feen them very large. Old Walton fpeaks of fome that weighed two pounds. In a lift of fish fold in the London markets, with the greatest weight of each, communicated to us by an intelligent fishmonger, is mention of one whofe weight was five pounds.

The roach is deep but thin, and the

back is much elevated, and fharply ridged: the fcales large, and fall off very easily. Side lines bend much in the middle towards the belly.

$33. The DACE.

haunts the fame places, is a great breeder, This, like the roach, is gregarious, very lively, and during fummer is very fond of frolicking near the furface of the water. This fish and the roach are coarse and infipid meat.

Its head is fmall: the irides of a pale yellow: the body long and flender: its length feldom above ten inches, though in the above-mentioned lift is an account of one that weighed a pound and an half: the fcales fmaller than thofe of the roach.

The back is varied with dufky, with a caft of a yellowish green: the fides and belly filvery: the dorfal fin dufky: the ventral, anal, and caudal fins red, but lefs fo than thofe of the former: the tail is very much forked.

$34. The CHUB.

Salvianus imagines this fifh to have been the fqualus of the ancients, and grounds his opinion on a fuppofed error in a certain paffage in Columella and Varro, where he would fubftitute the word Squalus instead of fearus: Columella fays no more than that the old Romans paid much attention to their stews, and kept even the fea-filh in freth-water, paying as much respect to the mullet and fearus, as those of his days did to the murena and bass.

That the fcarus was not our chub, is very evident; not only because the chub is entirely an inhabitant of fresh waters, but likewise it seems improbable that the Romans would give themselves any trouble about the worst of river fish, when they neglected the most delicious kinds; all their attention was directed towards thofe of the fea: the difficulty of procuring them feems to have been the criterion of their value, as is ever the cafe with effete luxury.

The chub is a very coarse fish, and full of bones: it frequents the deep holes of rivers, and during fummer commonly lies on the furface, beneath the fhade of fome tree or bufh. It is a very timid fish, finking to the bottom on the least alarm, even at the paffing of a fhadow, but they will foon refume their fituation. It feeds on worms, caterpillars, grafshoppers, beetles, and other coleopterous infects that happen to fall into the water; and it will even feed on cray-fish. This fifh will rife to a fly.

This fish takes its name from its head, not only in our own, but in other languages; we call it chub, according to Skinner, from the old English, cop, a head; the French, teftard; the Italians, capitone.

It does not grow to a large fize; we have known fome that weighed above five pounds, but Salvianus fpeaks of others that were eight or nine pounds in weight. The body is oblong, rather round, and of a pretty equal thicknefs the greateft part of the way: the fcales are large.

The irides filvery; the cheeks of the fame colour: the head and back of a deep dufky green; the fides filvery, but in the fummer yellow: the belly white: the pectoral fins of a pale yellow: the ventral and anal fins red: the tail a little forked, of a brownish hue, but tinged with blue at the

end.

$35. The BLEAK.

fins pellucid: the fcales fall off very eafily: the tail much forked.

$36. The WHITE BAIT. During the month of July there appear in the Thames, near Blackwall and Greenwich, innumerable multitudes of fmall fifh, which are known to the Londoners by the name of White Bait. They are efteemed very delicious when fried with fine flour, and occafion, during the feafon, a vait refort of the lower order of epicures to the taverns contiguous to the places they are taken at.

There are various conjectures about this fpecics, but all terminate in a fuppofition that they are the fry of fome fish, but few agree to which kind they owe their origin. Some attribute it to the fhad, others to the fprat, the fmelt, and the bleak. That they neither belong to the fhad, nor the fprat, is

The talking of thefe, Aufonius lets us evident from the number of branchiofteknow, was the fport of children,

ALBURNOS prædam puerilibus hamis. They are very common in many of our rivers, and keep together in large fhoals. Thefe fish feem at certain feafons to be in great agonies; they tumble about near the furface of the water, and are incapable of fwimming far from the place, bnt in about two hours recover, and disappear. Fish thus affected, the Thames fishermen call mad bleaks. They feem to be troubled with a fpecies of gordias or hair-worm, of the fame kind with thofe which Aristotle fays that the ballerus and tillo are infefted with, which torments them fo that they rife to the furface of the water and then die.

Artificial pearls are made with the fcales of this fish, and we think of the dace. They are beat into a fine powder, then diluted with water, and introduced into a thin glafs bubble, which is afterwards filled with wax. The French were the inventors of this art. Doctor Lifter + tells us, that when he was at Paris, a certain artift ufed in one winter thirty hampers full of fish in this manufacture.

The bleak feldom exceeds five or fix inches in length: their body is flender, greatly compreffed fideways, not unlike that of the fprat.

The eyes are large; the irides of a pale yellow: the under jaw the longeft: the lateral line crooked: the gills filvery: the back green: the fides and belly filvery: the

Hift. an. lib. viii. c. 20. Journey to Paris, 142.

gous rays, which in thofe are eight, in this only three. That they are not the young of fmelts, is as clear, because they want the pinna adipofa, or rayle's fin; and that they are not the offspring of the bleak is extremely probable, fince we never heard of the white bait being found in any other river, notwithstanding the bleak is very common in feveral of the British ftreams: but as the white bait bears a greater fimilarity to this fish than to any other we have mentioned, we give it a place here as an appendage to the bleak, rather than form a distinct article of a fish which it is impoffible to clafs with certainty.

It is evident that it is of the carp or cyprinus genus; it has only three bran chioftegous rays, and only one dorfal fin; and in refpect to the form of the body, is compreffed like that of the bleak.

Its ufual length is two inches: the under jaw is the longeft: the irides filvery, the pupil black: the dorfal fin is placed nearer to the head than to the tail, and confifts of about fourteen rays: the fide line is ftrait: the tail forked, the tips black.

The head, fides, and belly, are filvery; the back tinged with green.

$37. The MINOW.

This beautiful fish is frequent in many of our fmall gravelly streams, where they keep in fhoals.

The body is flender and fmooth, the fcales being extremely fmall. It feldom exceeds three inches in length. The

« EelmineJätka »