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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 greatest part of the way: the scales 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.

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fins pellucid: the scales fall off very eafly: the tail much forked.

The WHITE BAIT.

During the month of July there appear in the Thames, near Blackwall and Greenwich, innumerable multitudes of small fish, which are known to the Londoners by the name of White Bait. They are esteemed very delicious when fried with fine flour, and occafion, during the season, a vaft refort of the lower order of epicures to the taverns contiguous to the places they are taken at.

There are various conjectures about this fpecies, 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 sprat, is evident from the number of branchioste

The taking of thefe, Aufonius lets us gous rays, which in thofe are eight, in know, was the fport of children,

ALBURNOS prædam puerilibus hamis. They are very common in many of our rivers, and keep together in large fhoals. These 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, but in about two hours recover, and disappear. Fish thus affected the Thames fishermen call mad bleaks. They seem to be troubled with a fpecies of gordius or hair-worm, of the fame kind with thofe which Ariftotle 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 scales 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 glass 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.

this only three. That they are not the young of fmelts is as clear, because they want the pinna adiposa, or rayless 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 class with certainty.

It is evident that it is of the carp or cyprinus genus: it has only three branchioftegous 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.

§ 36. The MINOW.

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

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

The

The lateral line is of a golden colour: the back flat, and of a deep olive: the fides and belly vary greatly in different fish; in a few are of a rich crimson, in others bluish, in others white. The tail is forked, and marked near the base with a dusky spot.

$37. The GOLD FISH. These fish are now quite naturalized in this country, and breed as freely in the open waters as the common carp.

They were first introduced into England about the year 1691, but were not generally known till 1728, when a great number were brought over, and prefented firft to Sir Mathew Dekker, and by him circulated round the neighbourhood of London, from whence they have been diftributed to moft parts of the country.

In China the most beautiful kinds are taken in a small lake in the province of Che-Kyang. Every perfon of fashion keeps them for amufement, either in porcelaine veffels, or in the small bafons that decorate the courts of the Chinese houses. The beauty of their colours, and their lively motions, give great entertainment, efpecially to the ladies, whofe pleasures, by

reafon of the cruel policy of that country, are extremely limited.

In form of the body they bear a great refemblance to a carp. They have been known in this ifland to arrive at the length of eight inches; in their native place they are faid to grow to the fize of our largest herring.

The noftrils are tubular, and form fort of appendages above the nofe: the dorfal fin and the tail vary greatly in fhape; the tail is naturally bifid, but in many is trifid, and in fome even quadrifid: the anal fins are the strongest characters of this fpecies, being placed not behind one another like thofe of other fish, but oppofite each other like the ventral fins.

The colours vary greatly; fome are marked with a fine blue, with brown, with bright filver; but the general predominant colour is gold, of a moft amazing fplendor; but their colours and form need not be dwelt on, fince thofe who want opportunity of feeing the living fish, may furvey them expreffed in the most animated manner, in the works of our ingenious and honeft friend Mr. George Edwards.

Du Halde, 316.

Pennant.

A New CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE of Remarkable Events, Discoveries, and Inventions:

Also, the Æra, the Country, and Writings of Learned Men.

The whole comprehending in one View, the Analyfis or Outlines of General History from the Creation to the present Time.

Before Chrift. 4004

4003

HE creation of the world, and Adam and Eve.

THE

The birth of Cain, the first who was born of a woman.

3017 Enoch, for his piety, is tranflated into Heaven.

2348 The old world is deftroyed by a deluge which continued 377 days. 2247 The tower of Babel is built about this time by Noah's pofterity, upon which God miraculously confounds their language, and thus difperfes them into different nations.

About the fame time Noah is, with great probability, fuppofed to have parted from his rebellious offspring, and to have led a colony of fome of the more tractable into the East, and there either he or one of his fucceffors to have founded the ancient Chinese monarchy.

354

2234 The

2234 The celeftial obfervations are begun at Babylon, the city which firft gave birth to learning and the sciences.

2188 Mifraim, the fon of Ham, founds the kingdom of Egypt, which lafted 1663 years, down to the conqueft of Cambyfes, in 525 before Chrift.

2059 Ninus, the son of Belus, founds the kingdom of Affyria, which lafted above 1000 years, and out of its ruins were formed the Affyrians of Babylon, those of Nineveh, and the kingdom of the Medes.

1921 The covenant of God made with Abram, when he leaves Haran to go into Canaan, which begins the 430 years of fojourning.

1897 The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed for their wickedness, by fire from Heaven.

1856 The kingdom of Argos, in Greece, begins under Inachus.

1822 Memnon, the Egyptian, invents the letters.

1715 Prometheus firft ftruck fire from flints.

1635 Jofeph dies in Egypt, which concludes the book of Genefis, containing a period of 2369 years.

1574 Aaron born in Egypt: 1490, appointed by God first high-priest of the Ifraelites. 1571 Mofes, brother to Aaron, born in Egypt, and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, who educates him in all the learning of the Egyptians.

1556 Cecrops brings a colony of Saites from Egypt into Attica, and begins the kingdom of Athens, in Greece.

1546 Scamander comes from Crete into Phrygia, and begins the kingdom of Troy. 1493 Cadmus carried the Phoenician letters into Greece, and built the citadel of Thebes. 1491 Moles performs a number of miracles in Egypt, and departs from that kingdom, together with 600,coo Ifraelites, befides children; which completed the 430 years of fojourning. They miraculously pafs through the Red Sea, and come to the defert of Sinai, where Mofes receives from God, and delivers to the people, the Ten Commandments, and the other laws, and fets up the tabernacle, and in it the ark of the covenant.

1485 The firft fhip that appeared in Greece was brought from Egypt by Danaus, who arrived at Rhodes, and brought with him his fifty daughters.

1453 The firft Olympic game's celebrated at Olympia, in Greece.

1452 The Pentateuch, or five first books of Mofes, are written in the land of Moab, where he died the year following, aged 110.

1451 The Ifraelites, after fojourning in the wilderness forty years, are led under Joshua into the land of Canaan, where they fix themselves, after having fubdued the natives; and the period of the fabbatical year commences.

1406 Iron is found in Greece from the accidental burning of the woods.

1198 The rape of Helen by Paris, which, in 1193, gave rife to the Trojan war, and fiege of Troy by the Greeks, which continued ten years, when that city was taken and burnt.

1048 David is fole king of Ifrael.

1004 The Temple is folemnly dedicated by Solomon.

896 Elijah, the prophet, is tranflated to Heaven.

894 Money first made of gold and filver at Argos.

869 The city of Carthage, in Africa, founded by queen Dido.

814 The kingdom of Macedon begins.

753 Era of the building of Rome in Italy by Romulus, firft king of the Romans." 720 Samaria taken, after three years fiege, and the kingdom of Ifrael finished, by Salmanafar, king of Affyria, who carries the ten tribes into captivity.

The first eclipfe of the moon on record.

658 Byzantium (now Conftantinople) built by a colony of Athenians.

604 By order of Necho, king of Egypt, fome Phoenicians failed from the Red Sea round Africa, and returned by the Mediterranean.

600 Thales, of Miletus, travels into Egypt, confults the priests of Memphis, acquires the knowledge of geometry, aftronomy, and philofophy; returns to Greece, calculates eclipfes, gives general notions of the univerfe, and maintains that one Supreme Intelligence regulates all its motions.

600 Maps,

600 Maps, globes, and the figns of the Zodiac, invented by Anaximander, the scholar

of Thales.

597 Jehoiakin, king of Judah, is carried away captive, by Nebuchadnezzar, to Babylon.

587 The city of Jerufalem taken, after a fiege of 18 months.

562 The first comedy at Athens acted upon a moveable scaffold.

559 Cyrus the first king of Perfia.

538 The kingdom of Babylon finished; that city being taken by Cyrus, who, in 536, iffues an edict for the return of the Jews.

534 The first tragedy was acted at Athens, on a waggon, by Thefpis.

526 Learning is greatly encouraged at Athens, and a public library first founded. 515 The fecond Temple at Jerufalem is finifhed under Darius.

509 Tarquin, the feventh and laft king of the Romans, is expelled, and Rome is go. verned by two confuls, and other republican magiftrates, till the battle of Pharfalia, being a space of 461 years.

504 Sardis taken and burnt by the Athenians, which gave occafion to the Perfian inva

fion of Greece.

486 Efchylus, the Greek poet, first gains the prize of tragedy.

481 Xerxes the Great, king of Perfia, begins his expedition against Greece.

458 Ezra is fent from Babylon to Jerufalem, with the captive Jews, and the veffels of gold and filver, &c. being feventy weeks of years, or 490 years before the crucifixion of our Saviour.

454 The Romans fend to Athens for Solon's laws.

451 The Decemvirs created at Rome, and the laws of the twelve tables compiled and ratified.

430 The hiftory of the Old Teftament finishes about this time.

Malachi, the laft of the prophets.

400 Socrates, the founder of moral philofophy among the Greeks, believes the immortality of the foul, and a ftate of rewards and punishments, for which, and other fublime doctrines, he is put to death by the Athenians, who soon after repent, and erect to his memory a ftatue of brass.

331 Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, conquers Darius king of Perfia, and other nations of Afia. 323, Dies at Babylon, and his empire is divided by his generals into four kingdoms.

285 Dionyfius, of Alexandria, began his aftronomical ara on Monday, June 26, being the first who found the exact folar year to confift of 365 days, 5 hours, and 49

minutes.

284 Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, employs feventy-two interpreters to tranflate the Old Testament into the Greek language, which is called the Septuagint.

269 The first coining of filver at Rome.

264 The first Punic war begins, and continues 23 years. The chronology of the Arundelian marbles compofed.

260 The Romans firft concern themselves in naval affairs, and defeat the Carthaginians at fea.

237 Hamilcar, the Carthaginian, caufes his fon Hannibal, at nine years old, to fwear eternal enmity to the Romans.

218 The fecond Punic war begins, and continues 17 years. Hannibal paffes the Alps, and defeats the Romans in feveral battles; but, being amufed by his women, does not improve his victories by the ftorming of Rome.

190 The firft Roman army enters Afia, and from the spoils of Antiochus brings the Afiatic luxury first to Rome.

168 Perfeus defeated by the Romans, which ends the Macedonian kingdom.

167 The firft library erected at Rome, of books brought from Macedonia.

163 The government of Judea under the Maccabees begins, and continues 126 years. 146 Carthage, the rival to Rome, is razed to the ground by the Romans.

135 The hiftory of the Apocrypha ends.

52 Julius Cæfar makes his first expedition into Britain.

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47 The battle of Pharfalia between Cæfar and Pompey, in which the latter is defeated.

The Alexandrian library, confifting of 400,000 valuable books, burnt by accident. 45 The war of Africa, in which Cato kills himself.

The folar year introduced by Cæfar.

44 Cæfar, the greatest of the Roman conquerors, after having fought fifty pitched battles, and flain 1,192,000 men, and overturned the liberties of his country, is killed in the fenate-house.

35 The battle of Actium fought, in which Mark Antony and Cleopatra are totally defeated by Octavius, nephew to Julius Cæfar.

30 Alexandria, in Egypt, is taken by Octavius, upon which Antony and Cleopatra put themselves to death, and Egypt is reduced to a Roman province.

27 Octavius, by a decree of the fenate, obtains the title of Auguftus Cæfar, and an abfolute exemption from the laws, and is properly the firft Roman emperor.

8 Rome at this time is fifty miles in circumference, and contains 463,000 men fit to bear arms.

A. C.

12

27

33

The temple of Janus is fhut by Auguftus, as an emblem of univerfal peace, and
JESUS CHRIST is born on Monday, December 25.

difputes with the doctors in the Temple;

is baptized in the Wilderness by John;

is crucified on Friday, April 3, at 3 o'clock P. M,

His Refurrection on Sunday, April 5: his Afcenfion, Thursday, May 14.

36 St. Paul converted.

39 St. Matthew writes his Gospel.

Pontius Pilate kills himself.

40 The name of Chriftians firft given at Antioch to the followers of Christ.
43 Claudius Cæfar's expedition into Britain.

44 St. Mark writes his Gofpel.

49 London is founded by the Romans; 368, furrounded by ditto with a wall, fome parts of which are still obfervable.

51 Caractacus, the British king, is carried in chains to Rome.

52 The council of the Apoftles at Jerufalem.

55 St. Luke writes his Gospel.

59 The emperor Nero puts his mother and brothers to death.

perfecutes the Druids in Britain.

61 Boadicea, the British queen, defeats the Romans; but is conquered foon after by
Suetonius, governor of Britain.

62 St. Paul is fent in bonds to Rome-writes his Epiftles between 51 and 66.
63 The Acts of the Apoftles written.

Christianity is fuppofed to be introduced into Britain by St. Paul, or fome of his
difciples, about this time.

64 Rome fet on fire, and burned for fix days; upon which began (under Nero) the first perfecution against the Chriftians.

67 St. Peter and St. Paul put to death.

70 Whilft the factious Jews are deftroying one another with mutual fury, Titus, the Roman general, takes Jerufalem, which is razed to the ground, and the plough made to pafs over it.

83 The philofophers expelled Rome by Domitian.

85 Julius Agricola, governor of South Britain, to protect the civilized Britons from the incurfions of the Caledonians, builds a line of forts between the rivers Forth and Clyde; defeats the Caledonians under Galgacus on the Grampian hills; and firft fails round Britain, which he discovers to be an island.

96 St. John the Evangelift wrote his Revelation-his Gofpel in 97.

121 The Caledonians reconquer from the Romans all the fouthern parts of Scotland; upon which the emperor Adrian builds a wall between Newcastle and Carlisle; but this alfo proving ineffectual, Pollius Urbicus, the Roman general, about the year 144, repairs Agricola's forts, which he joins by a wall four yards thick.

135 The fecond Jewish war ends, when they were all banished Judæa.

139 Juftin

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