.directions how to catch this fish, of which I have given you these observations.

He will bite at a paste made of brown bread and honey, or at Marsh-worm or a Lob-worm; he inclines very much to any paste with which tar is mixed, and he will bite also at a smaller worm, with his head nipped off, and a Cod-worm put on the hook before that worm. And I doubt not but that he will also, in the three hot months, (for in the nine colder he stirs not much,) bite at a Flag-worm, or at a green Gentle; but can positively say no more of the Tench,* he being a fish that I have not often angled for; but I wish my honest scholar may, and be ever fortunate, when he fishes.

CHAPTER XII.

OBSERVATIONS OF THE PERCH, AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO
FISH FOR HIM.

Piscator. THE Perch is a very good, and a very bold biting fish. He is one of the fishes of prey that, like the Pike and

*The haunts of the Tench are nearly the same with those of the Carp. They delight more in ponds than in rivers, and lie under weeds, near sluices, and at pond heads.

They spawn about the beginning of July, and are best in season from the beginning of September to the end of May. They will bite all the hot months, but are taken best in April and May.

There are no better baits for this fish than a middle sized lob-worm, or

Trout, carries his teeth in his mouth, which is very large and he dare venture to kill and devour several other kinds of fish. He has a hooked, or hog back, which is armed with sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin armed or covered over with thick dry hard scales, and hath, which few other fish have, two fins on his back. He is so bold that he will invade one of his own kind, which the Pike will not do so willingly;* and you may therefore easily believe him to be a bold biter.

"The Perch is of great esteem in Italy," saith Aldrovandus: "and especially the least are there esteemed a dainty dish." And Gesner prefers the Perch and Pike above the Trout, or any fresh water fish: he says the Germans have this proverb, "More wholesome than a Perch of Rhine:" and he says the river Perch is so wholesome that physicians allow him to be eaten by wounded men, or by men in fevers, or by women in childbed.

66

He spawns but once a-year; and is, by physicians, held very nutritive; yet, by many, to be hard of digestion. They abound more in the river Po, and in England," says Rondeletius, "than other parts; and have in their brain a stone, which is, in foreign parts, sold by apothecaries, being there noted to be very medicinable against the stone in the reins.† These be a part of the commendations which some philosophical brains have bestowed upon the fresh water Perch: yet they commend the sea Perch, which is known by having but one fin on his back, (of which they say we English see but a few,) to be a much better fish.

The Perch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been credibly informed, to be almost two feet long; for an honest informer told me, such a one was not long since taken by Sir Abraham Williams, a gentleman of worth, and a brother of the angle, that yet lives, and I wish he may this was a deepDodied fish, and doubtless durst have devoured a Pike of half his own length. For I have told you, he is a bold fish; such a one as, but for extreme hunger, the Pike will not devour. For to affright the Pike, and save himself, the Perch will set

red-worm, well scoured, a gentle, a young wasp grub boiled, or a greenworm shook from the boughs of trees.

Use a strong grass, or gut, and a goose-quill float without a cork, except in rivers, where the cork is always to be preferred.

Fish very near the ground. And if you bait with gentles, throw in a few at the taking every fish, which will draw them to your hook, and keep them together.

This I think is extremely doubtful; for all voracious fishes, like the Pike, seem to make no distinction between their own species and others, devouring all alike.-J. R.

+ This fancy must have originated in resemblances, by which the yellow bark of barberry was prescribed for saundice, and the roots of the little celandine for piles.-J. R.

ap his fins, much like as a turkey cock will sometimes set up Dis tail.

But, my scholar, the Perch is not only valiant to defend himself, but he is, as I said, a bold biting fish: yet he will not bite at all seasons of the year; he is very abstemious in winter, yet will bite then in the midst of the day, if it be warm: and note, that all fish bite best about the midst of a warm day in winter. And he hath been observed, by some, not usually to bite till the mulberry tree buds; that is to say, till extreme frosts be past the spring; for, when the mulberry tree blossoms, many gardeners observe their forward fruit to be past the danger of frosts; and some have made the like observations of the Perch's biting.

But bite the Perch 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, being well scoured in moss and fennel; or he will bite at a worm that lies under cow dung, with a bluish head. And if you rove for a Perch with a minnow, then it is best to be alive, you sticking your hook through his back fin; or a minnow with the hook in his upper lip, and letting him swim up and down, about midwater, 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 Perch 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 Perch time enough when he bites; for there was scarce ever any angler that has given him too much.

And

Although Perch, like Trout, delight in clear swift rivers, with pebbly, gravelly bottoms, they are often found in sandy, clayey soils: they love a moderately deep water, and frequent holes by the sides of or near little streams, and the hollows under banks.

The Perch spawns about the beginning of March: the best time of the year to angle for him is from the beginning of May till the end of June, yet you may continue to fish for him till the end of September; he is best, taken in cloudy windy weather, and, as some say, from seven to ten in the forenoon, and from two to seven in the afternoon.

Other baits for the Perch are loaches, miller's thumbs, sticklebacks, small lob and marsh and red-worms, well scoured; horse beans boiled, cad-bait, oak-worms, bobs, and gentles.

Many of these fish are are taken in the rivers about Oxford; and the

now I think best to rest myself, for I have almost spent my spirits with talking so long.

Venator. Nay, good master, one fish more! for you see it ains 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!

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

Venator. Yes, master! I will speak you a copy of verses that were made by Doctor Donne, and made to shew the world that he could make soft and smooth verses, when he thought smoothness worth his labour; and I love them the better, because they allude to rivers, and fish, and fishing.

these:

Come, live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove,
Of golden sands, and erystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run,
Warm'd by thy eyes more than the sun;
And there the enamell'd 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 beest loth,
By sun or moon, thou darkenest both;
And if mine eyes have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

They be

author of the "Angler's Sure Guide" says, he once saw the figure of a Perch, drawn with a pencil on the door of a house near that city, which was twenty-nine inches long; and was informed it was the true dimensions of a living Perch. Angler's Sure Guide, p. 155.

The largest Perch are taken with a minnow, hooked with a good hold through the back fin, or rather through the upper lip; for the Perch, by reason of the figure of his mouth, cannot take the bait crosswise, as the Pike will. When you fish thus, use a large cork float, and lead your line about nine inches from the bottom, otherwise the minnow will come to the top of the water; but in the ordinary way of fishing, let your bait hang within about six inches from the ground.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset
With strangling snare 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 catch'd thereby
Is wiser far, alas, than I.

I thank you

Piscator. Well remembered, honest scholar. 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.

CHAPTER XIII.

OBSERVATIONS OF THE EEL, AND OTHER FISH THAT WANT SCALES, AND HOW TO FISH FOR THEM.

EEL-Anguilla vulgaris.— LINNEUS.

Piscator. It is agreed by most men, that the Eel is a most dainty fish: the Romans have esteemed her the Helena of their feasts, and some the queen of palate pleasure. But most men

"Angles" literally mean hooks, but here the word seems to imply the whole fishing tackle. —J R.