Transcriber’s Note: Page numbering in this book was misprinted, startingat 1 and running up to 36, before restarting at 33 on the next page. Asthe index refers to the incorrect page numbers, they have been retained.
[1]
THE
HISTORY
OF
ESCULENT FISH.
Price, in Boards, One Guinea and a Half, coloured.
[2]
[3]
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.
[4]
Barbus: Barbeau. A Barbell. Elizabeth Albin Depictio June 30. 1736.
[5]
The BARBEL,
Called, in Icthyology, Barbus, but by some writers inNatural History, Mustus Stuviatitis, and is a species of theCyprinus. The Barbel is a fish commonly known and socalled from the barb or beard under its chaps or nose, and is ofthe leather-mouthed kind.
It is but a moderate tasted fish, and the female is less esteemedfor the table than the male; but neither of them is muchvalued: the worst season for them is in April. They love tobe 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 currentsof water, as under deep bridges, weirs, and the like places, andare 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[6]late in the evening. The place should be baited with choppedworms some time before; and no bait is so good for thehook as the spawn of fish, particularly the Salmon: in defectof these, lob-worms will do; but they must be very clean andnice, and the hook carefully covered, otherwise he will nottouch them. Old cheese steeped in honey also