the scales; besides being often sorely afflicted with worms, and internal ulcerations of the liver.* The carp though a poor fish to dine on au naturel, would, served à la Walton, as below, no doubt prove an excellent dish : Take a carp, alive if possible, scour and rub him clean with salt and water, but scale him not; then open him, and put him, with his blood and liver, which you must save when you open him, into a small pot or kettle; then take sweet marjorum, thyme, and parsley, of each half a handful, a sprig of rosemary and another of savoury. Bind them in two or three bundles and put them to your carp, with four or five whole onions, twenty pickled oysters, and three anchovies; then pour upon your carp as much claret wine as will cover him, and season your claret well with salt, cloves, and mace, and the rinds of oranges and lemons; that done cover your pot, and set it on a quick fire till it be sufficiently CYPRINUS There are many distinct species of carp besides the cyprinus carpio, but amongst the number none are more deserving of a brief notice than those lovely little Orientals which embellish the tazzas of our gardens, and the ornamental glass globes of our drawing rooms and conservatories-the cyprinus auratus, or gold-fish. These sportive chineses found their way to England a long while ago, though they are said to have been unknown in France till the days of Madame de Pompadour, to propitiate whom they were originally sent as a present.' Whatever may have been the date of their first introduction, the subsequent destiny of these two 75 boiled; then take out the carp and lay it with the broth on a dish, and pour upon it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, melted and beaten with half a dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some of the herbs shred. Garnish your dish with lemons, and so serve it up, and much good may it do you! Some buy only the head, for the sake of the false tongue,' which enjoys a special reputation as a delicacy, and also for being, according to Aldrovandi, decidedly aphrodisiac; vim augendi Veneris habet, as he has convinced himself, he says are also the tongues of tench and ducks. For ourself we should think them all equally innocent of producing any such effects. Cyprinus' bile (a green colour used by painters) was formerly employed in medicine, but for what particular diseases we do not remember to have read. Auratus. Cyprians has been very different. The Pompadour's reign of beauty died with herself, but her lubric rivals have maintained the breed, spread their conquests into distant lands, and secured themselves hosts of admirers in every part of the civilized world. Not that they are perfect beauties, however; in symmetry of form they must yield the palm to the silvery bleak,' darting dace,' and other Leucisci (to which they are next of kin), whilst not a few labour under various personal defects, such as lameness of fin and goggle-eyes; or else have the mouth and sometimes the whole body screwed to one side; yet, in spite of these and other not unfrequent Aristotle asserts that fish enjoy immunity from disease. Pliny modifies Aristotle's assertion, which he maintains must be confined to epidemic affections alone. 'We do not know or read that all sortes be subject to maladies or diseases as other beasts, and even the wilde and savage; but that this or that fishe in every kind may be, it appeareth evidently in that some of them mislike, and come to be carrionlean, whiles other of the like sorte are in good plight and exceeding fat.' Virgil tells a different story Jam maris immensi prolem, et genus omne natantum, and his verse is more in accordance with fact than Aristotle's prose. Epidemics amongst fish are not rare; a very remarkable one occurred some twenty years ago. During the prevalence of the first visitation of Asiatic cholera on the continent, fish perished in vast numbers, particularly in Marienburgh, a district in Prussia, where forty ton of them were buried from a single pond in Dimpenburgh. -(Vide Lancet, History of Cholera, Nov. 1831.) In the year 1011, says the accomplished translator of Cuvier, in 1691, says our edition of Buffon-the reader must adopt his own date. blemishes, no fish upon the whole can surpass, and few compete with them, in brilliancy of colouring or in general attractiveness. The varieties of hue assumed by the cyprinus auratus in passing through the different stages of development to full growth are endless. At first it is of a dark sooty colour, nor is the splendid panoply perfected till more than a year has rolled over head; the coming change is first indicated by the appearance of small silvery points, dispersed here and there over the scales, which spreading and deepening at the same time, at length encase the entire body in a spangled robe of glittering gold. As the fish approaches the term of existence it loses its brilliancy, and having no Betty at hand to supply the deficiencies of expiring nature by art, dies bleached in body, and with 6 achromatic cheeks.' Those of its members who pass their lives in the perpetual circumnavigation of a glass globe require a renewed ocean for the pastime in winter not less than once a week, and oftener in summer, together with daily provisions de bouche for the voyage, of which insects, worms, hard boiled eggs chopped fine, and bread crumbs, form the chief store. In such situations they seldom grow, or show much vivacity; but in ponds, where their natural victuals abound, and there is plenty of room to stretch in, specimens not unfrequently occur of from twelve to fifteen inches long, and nothing can exceed the little creature's sportiveness there, provided the temperature be as congenial as the site. We have frequently watched the evolutions of a large shoal kept in the basin of the scrubby park at Brussels, of which they form the only ornament, the whole body en masse, in close pursuit of some delinquent member, whose tail first one and then another would snap at, seize, and bite with boneless gums, each apparently eager to hunt him down, and to secure the brush. These fish have so delicate a perception of sound that they are capable of being attracted like the common carp to a particular spot by a whistle, or some other familiar sound. It is thus that the inhabitants of the Kiang' are said to summon them to dinner; but as they are known to turn faint, and sometimes even to die in a thunder storm, when the peals are reiterated and loud, what must their feelings be when each Chinese proprietor (whose fish pond is generally contiguous to his dwelling) rends the air with the discordant banging of gongs. A frittura of gold-fish has not, that we are aware, been attempted even in Italy; they would no doubt be as insipid as small carp are, and therefore the mediocrity of their flesh is protected by the golden scales which invest it. CYPRINUS BARbatus (Barbel.)* Of the barbels of ancient Greece no records are extant; in modern Greece they are, or were in Belon's day, known as musticata, a calling obviously derived from μvora§, mustax, which in Theocritus means 'beard on the upper lip' (hence moustache), and applied to barbel, the fish with the moustache. The old Latin name Barbus, employed by Ausonius, as well as all its present European designations, point to the same peculiarity, viz., a beard of barbels hanging from the superior jaw. This is a widely distributed fish, which thrives in some situations especially, where it continues to multiply in spite of every destructive engine employed against it, whether they be net, lines, or the fingers; for Alberti says that from ten to twelve waggon loads are annually taken out of the Danube during the autumnal equinox by the naked hand alone. In some localities favourable to their growth, barbel will reach a length of ten feet,' (Cuv.) These must be very old fish, which according to Ausonius would render them more acceptable at table. Tu melior pejore ævo, tibi contigit uni Spirantum ex numero non illaudata senectus. * The barbel forms on 'Coat of Bar,' one of the four quarterings of Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry 6th (Yarrel), so that a sort of historic interest attaches to this fish. The Insubrians, however, say that no barbel is fit for food: Nor hot, nor cold, Nor young, nor old! year And this prejudice seems to have become at length very generally adopted at home; witness the constant practice of those numerous anglers who from year to grab each liquid foot of Thames from Putney-bridge to Twickenham, who hold all else fish that takes the bait; but who, when, as sometimes happens even to the clumsiest, they have hauled a noble barbel from the water, weighed, registered, and duly frescoed his fulllength portrait on the walls of the inn, with a view both to immortalize themselves and to encourage others, anon give up the carcass to the landlord's cat, to divide with her feline friends as she pleases, And who as to tasting what each takes a pride in, Would as soon think of eating the pan it was fried in ! Yet the barbel is not everywhere held cheap, nor was it always thus at home; as to our Gallic neighbours, who are some authority in these matters, they hold them in high esteem. At Tours on the Loire, and other inland places situated on rivers, Les trois Barbeaux is a well known sign; and an abundant supply is always ready for noces et festins in the water cage under the 77 bridge. We beg, therefore, to assure citizen anglers, and others who may be incredulous, that these fish, simply boiled in salt and water, and eaten cold, with a squeeze of lemon juice, will be found by no means despicable fare, and we particularly commend to their notice the head and its appurtenances. One precaution, however, must be taken before cooking, viz., the entire removal of the roe, as a very small fragment of this will produce very serious internal derangement. One heautontimoroumenos, yclept Antoninus Gazius, undertook, as a warning to mankind for ever afterwards, to eat two mouthfuls of barbel roe, and not more than as many hours after the experiment, became the seat of a set of symptoms as alarming as those produced by cholera itself. He tells us of racking pains and purging, of cold extremities, of deliquium; and in the second stage of his illness of such a prolonged state of vital prostration that his friends fairly gave him up. Gesner reports that he has seen cases as ugly. Yet in spite of these recitals this precious roe (which Machaon would hardly have ventured to prescribe to Ajax as a spring aperient) was at no remote period mercilessly used, not in camp practice, but in civil service, and figured as a remedy in foreign codexes and home pharmacopeias. * In Elizabeth's day barbel were in sufficient repute to be protected by statute law. Amongst the piscatory restrictions of her reign, it is enacted by Elizabeth, 1, cap. 17, that any one taking barbel less than twelve inches shall pay 20s. and give up the fish so wrongfully taken, and the net or engine so wrongfully used; and, again, by another enactment, whoever, fishing in the Severn, makes use of any engine or device, whereby salmon, trout, or barbel be taken, under the several lengths aforesaid, shall pay 5s., and forfeit the fish and the instruments. there at supper a portion of a small dish of these delicacies, which he let pass without taking any. Conduct so strange and unexpected made Ptolemy first stare, and then mutter to his confident, that he must have invited either a blind or an insane man to table. Whereupon Alcanor good-naturedly put the guest's abstinence in a new and more favourable light, by attributing it entirely to modesty : He saw it, sire, but deemed himself unworthy to lay profane hands upon so divine a little fish!' Galen speaks in no measured terms of the excellence of the gudgeon, declaring it to rank very high (præstantissimus) amongst the finny tribe; and that, not for the pleasure of eating merely, but for the satisfaction attending its easy digestion afterwards. The moderns coincide with the ancients respecting the wholesomeness of gudgeon, though it is seldom seen at a dinnerparty, unless, perhaps, at some Thames-side villa, in imitation of Pope 'Tis true no turbots dignify my boards, But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords. In this small section, the females exceeding the males as six to one, allows each gobius mas to keep a harem. We read in Athenæus, of a certain Greek lady whose sweetheart's name was Goby, épaσrns ηv, αὐτῆς ΚΩΒΙΟΣ τις όνομα ; but whether he was Turk enough to abuse the privilege of his name and to maintain a seraglio, does not appear. All anglers know that Gobies are What gudgeons are we men, So that the latter part of Hood's At a brandling once gudgeons would But they seem to have altered their forms, CYPRINUS TINCA (TENCH). Tinca vocor, quare? maculosum respice tergum, Ausonius speaks disparagingly of tench, as the poor man's pis aller, ranking it with those vile fish which answer no good purpose either to keep or cook viles pisces ne captare quidem nedum alere conducit (Columella). Yet, in spite of the slur thus cast upon it, and the prejudice still entertained by the doctors and old women in some parts of Italy (who, because the tench thrives most in, and is generally brought from, malarious districts, suppose the marsh ague must be in its flesh, declaring Nessuno mangia Tenca at Florence it is rightly held supe rior to any fishy food which enters the market; and in the Neapolitan 'pescheria' yields to very few finer marine species. A Florentine noble had once the hardihood to assert at Leo X.'s table, that there was nothing that swam the sea, to his mind, comparable to a good Tuscan tench;* which declaration, though it convulsed the native Romans assembled at the board with laughter at the simplicity of so poor a connoisseur, we should certainly have sided with, and have been disposed to back an Agnano, Baccano, or Thrasymene 'tenca' against the whole of the Mediterranean ichthyarchy. The best way of serving tench is, *Ego certe Thrasymenam Tincam conditam in leucophago his vestris Triglis Spigolis et Rhombis valde præstitero. 1853.] Cyprinus Abramis-Cyprinus Cobites. cooked in a rich gravy sauce, containing raisins, Corinth currants, and pine-cone kernels, together with all the other ingredients of an agrodolce stew, bringing quite hot to table, and there squeezing over it the juice of a lemon. The skin (which from its thickness has procured this fish in Holland the name of shoemaker) is, we opine, a firstrate delicacy, and quite equal to that of turtle. Tench, like the gudgeon, is also held quite a dish for invalids; and has been pressed into their service in more ways than one. Convalescents who are not vet allowed mutton, may safely go from gruel and sago to tench broth; in febrile attacks, it used to be applied as a remedy to the palms 79 of the feet and hands, and is said to have absorbed the fever; laid over the region of the liver in jaundice, still more wonderful results speedily ensued-the skin of the icteric patient, we are assured, would, after one or two such applications, return to a perfectly natural colour, whilst the fish becoming more and more saffron in hue, at length expired in a jaundice, and on being cut open was found dyed throughout of a deep gamboge yellow! This fish very seldom attains to large dimensions here-a foot and a half is considered a very unusual length. In Italy, however, it has been known to reach twenty pounds weight. The word cobites, which occurs in Athenæus, has been borrowed and made use of by modern ichthyologists, as the scientific designation for loach; a fish which, though it must have fallen occasionally under the eye of those Romans who kept stews and stock-ponds, was probably deemed too worthless a pisciculus to have any name, and was left anonymous in consequence. Hicesius describes, indeed, the ancient cobites as 'a small light-coloured fish, covered with mucus,' points wherein it will certainly bear a comparison with its modern namesake; for Walton says, this groweth not to be above a finger long, and is no thicker than is suitable to that length; but then the loach is also of the shape of an eel, and hath a beard of wattles, like a barbel,' neither of which striking peculiarities VOL. XLVIII. NO. CCLXXXIII. could have possibly been overlooked or omitted by Hicesius had this been the fish he intended. The loach enjoys a good culinary reputation. Our Isaac' considers him most dainty for the table; and Gesner calls him emphatically, the invalid's fish. We must, however, discriminate a little here, for there are three very distinct species, and of very different merits: He that feedeth and is bred in little and clear swift brooks or rills, over gravel, and in the sharpest streams, is the best;' inferior to them in quality and size, though from the same locality, is the C. tænia, characterized by a forked prickle in front of the eyes;' and lastly, there is the common pond loach, C. fossilis, of soft flabby fibre and strongly impregnated with the smell and taste of tank. This species exceeds both F |