They are generally caught in nets during the night, being attracted together by fires lighted on the shore, or by torches fixed to the boats which are engaged in the fishery. As soon as they are caught the heads are cut off and the entrails taken out; after this they are salted, or pickled, and packed in barrels or earthen vessels for exportation.
In the choice of anchovies such should be selected as are small, round-backed, fresh pickled, whitish on the outside and red within. The most effectual method of concentrating the excellences of these fish is to reduce the fleshy part to a soft pulp, and to boil this gently, for a few minutes, with a certain proportion of water and spices. The substance thus prepared is denominated essence of anchovies.
246. The CARP (Cyprinus carpio, Fig. 70) is a fresh-water fish known by having one dorsal fin, three bony rays to the gill membrane, the mouth with four fleshy beards, the second ray of the dorsal fin serrated behind, and the body covered with large scales.
These fish sometimes grow to a very large size.
They inhabit slow and stagnated waters in various parts of Europe and Persia, and were first introduced into England about the year 1514.
Carp are a useful species of fish for the stocking of ponds, and for the supply of the table. In Polish Prussia they are an important article of commerce; being sent alive in well-boats to Sweden, Russia, and other parts. They are bred by the principal landholders of the country, to whom, in many instances, they yield a very important revenue. If the rearing of carp were better understood and practised in the marshy parts of England than it now is, they would amply repay every expence and trouble that might be bestowed upon them. The increase of these fish is very great: we are informed by Bloch that four male and three female carp, put into a large pond, produced in one year an offspring of no fewer than 110,000 fish. They are also extremely long lived, instances having occurred of carp living to the age of considerably more than 100 years. To fatten carp and increase their size, the growth of vegetation in the ponds where they are kept should be particularly attended to, as, during the summer-time, they principally feed upon this. In winter, when the ponds are frozen over, care must be taken to break the ice, that they may have access to the atmospheric air, without which, if they are in great numbers, they will die.
Carp are much esteemed as food, but a principal part of their excellence depends on the mode in which they are cooked. They are best in season during the autumnal and winter months. The usual mode of catching them is with nets, and the most proper time at daybreak. These fish, if kept in a cellar, in wet hay or moss, and fed with bread and milk, will live many days out of the water, and will even become fat.
With the roes of carp, in the eastern parts of Europe, a kind of caviar is made, which is sold in considerable quantity to the Jews, who hold that of the sturgeon in abhorrence. The sounds, or air-bladders, of carp are converted into a species of isinglass, and their gall is in much repute, with the Turks, for staining paper and for making a green paint.
247. The TENCH (Cyprinus tinca, Fig. 63) is a fish of the carp tribe, distinguished by its mouth having only two beards, the scales being small, the fins thick, and the whole body covered with a slimy matter.
The weight of these fish seldom exceeds four or five pounds, but instances have occurred of their weighing more than eleven pounds.