forward fruit to be past the danger of frosts; and some have made the like observation of the Pearch's biting.

But bite the Pearch will, and that very boldly; and as one has wittily observed, if there be twenty or forty in a hole, they may be, at one standing, all catched one after another; they being, as he says, like the wicked of the world, not afraid, though their fellows and companions perish in their sight. And you may observe, that they are not like the solitary Pike; but love to accompany one another, and march together in troops.

And the baits for this bold fish

are not many: I mean, he will bite as well at some or at any of these three, as at any or all others whatsoever, --a worm, a minnow, or a little frog, of which you may find many in hay-time: and of worms the dunghill-worm, called a Brandling, I take to be best, bcing well scoured in moss or fennel; or he will bite at a worm that lies under cow-dung, with a bluish head.

And if you rove for a Pearch with a minnow, then it is best to be alive, you sticking your hook through his back fin; or a minnow with a hook in his upper lip, and letting him swim up and down, about mid-water or a little lower, and you still keeping him to about that depth by a cork, which ought not to be a very little one and the like way you are to fish for the Pearch, with a small frog, your hook being fastened through the skin of his leg, towards the upper part of it and lastly, I will give you but this advice, that you give the Pearch time enough when he bites, for there was scarce ever any Angler that has given him too much. And now I think best to rest myself, for I have almost spent my spirits with talking so long.

VEN. Nay, good Master, one fish more, for you see it rains still, and you know our Angles are like money put to usury; they may thrive, though we sit still and do nothing but talk and enjoy one another. Come, come, the other fish, good Master.

PISC. But, Scholar, have you nothing to mix with this discourse, which now grows both tedious and tiresome? Shall I have nothing from you, that seem to have both a good memory and a cheerful spirit ?

VEN. Yes, Master, I will speak you a copy of verses that were made by Doctor Donne, and made to show the world that he could make soft and smooth verses, when he thought smoothness worth his labor; and I love them the better, because they allude to rivers, and fish, and fishing. They be these:

"Come, live with me, and be my love,

And we will some new pleasures prove

Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines and silver hooks.

"There will the river whispering run,
Warmed by the eyes more than the sun;
And there the enamelled fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

"When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Most amorously to thee will swim,
Gladder to catch thee than thou him.

"If thou to be so seen be'st loath,

By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both;
And if mine eyes have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

"Let others freeze with angling-reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds;
Or treacherously poor fish beset
With strangling snares, or windowy net :

"Let coarse, bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks outwrest;
Let curious traitors sleave silk flies,
To 'witch poor wandering fishes' eyes:

"For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait :
That fish that is not catched thereby
Is wiser far, alas! than I."

PISC. Well remembered, honest Scholar! I thank you for these choice verses, which I have heard formerly, but had quite forgot till they were recovered by

your happy memory. Well, being I have now rested myself a little, I will make you some requital, by telling you some observations of the Eel, for it rains still; and because, as you say, our angles are as money put to use, that thrives when we play, therefore we 'll sit still and enjoy ourselves a little longer under this honeysuckle hedge.

THE FOURTH DAY.

CHAP. XIII.

Observations of the EEL, and other Fish that

want scales, and how to fish for them.

PISCATOR.

T is agreed by most men, that the Eel is a most

IT

dainty fish: the Romans have esteemed her the Helena of their feasts, and some the queen of palatepleasure. But most men differ about their breeding: some say they breed by generation as other fish do; and others, that they breed, as some worms do, of mud; as rats and mice, and many other living creatures, are bred in Egypt by the sun's heat when it shines upon the overflowing of the river Nilus; or out of the putrefaction of the earth, and divers other ways. Those that deny them to breed by generation as other fish do, ask, If any man ever saw an Eel to have a spawn or melt? And they are answered, that they may be as certain of their breeding as if they had seen them spawn: for they say, that they are certain that Eels have all parts fit for generation, like other fish, but so small as not to be easily discerned, by reason of their fatness, but that discerned they may be, and that the he and the she Eel may be distinguished by their fins. And Rondeletius says, he has seen Eels cling together like dew-worms.

And others say, that Eels, growing old, breed other Eels out of the corruption of their own age, which, Sir Francis Bacon says, exceeds not ten years. And