The Compleat Angler

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in the month of August: some say, that then they dig a hole or grave in a safe place in the gravel, and there place their eggs or spawn, after the melter has done his natural office, and then hide it most cunningly, and cover it over wi

onable, and kipper, that is to say, have bony gristles grow out of their lower chaps, not unlike a hawk's beak, which hinders their feeding; and, in time, such fish so left behind pine away and die. 'Tis observed, that he may live thus one year from the sea; but he then grows insipid and tasteless, and loses

that there possess him; for, as one has wittily observed, he has, like some persons of honour and riches which have both their winter and summer houses, the fresh rivers for summer, and the salt water for winter, to spend his life in; which is not, as Sir Francis Bacon ha

es, or stops in the water, even to a height beyond common belief. Gesner speaks of such places as are known to be above eight feet high above water. And our Camden mentions, in his Britannia, the like wonder to be in Pembrokeshire, where the river Tivy falls into the sea; and that the fall is so downright, and so high, that the people stan

on seeks a freshe

the sea comes, ye

son grows; and st

ing down, makes

ng rocks that ther

r bounds they mea

ouring fish does

is strength he does

his mouth, and,

pass drawn, aloft

his height, as d

o end, and starte

th cast, so does

, he fail, his s

says, and, from

ever leaves unti

opposing

ells you, of this leap

lm

s no better Salmon than in England; and that though some of our northern counties h

, by tying a riband, or some known tape or thread, in the tail of some young Salmons which have been taken in weirs as they have swimmed towards the salt water; and then by taking a part of them again, with the known mark, at the same place, at their return from the sea, which is usually about six months after; and the like experiment hath been tried u

and that he is more kipper, and less able to endure a winter in the fresh water than the Sh

tis certain there be in the river Wye in Monmouthshire, where they be in season, as Camden observes, from September till April. But, my scholar, the observation of this and many ot

does not, as the Trout and many other fish, lie near the water-side or bank, or roots of trees, but swims in the deep and broad parts of the water, and usually in the mid

h should be well scoured, that is to say, kept seven or eight days in moss before you fish with them: and if you double your time of eight into sixteen, twenty, or more days, it is still the better; for th

run to as great a length as is needful, when he is hooked. And to that end, some use a wheel about the middle of thei

e next time": but he has been observed, both by others and myself, to catch more fish than I, or any other body that has ever gone a-fishing with him, could do, and especially Salmons. And I have been told lately, by one of his most intimate and secret friends, that the box in which he put those worms was anointed with a drop, or two or three, of the oil of ivy-berries, made by expression or infusion; and told, that by the worms remaining in that box an hour, or a like time, they had incorporated a kind of smell th

same words that they were given me by an excellent angler and a very friend, in writing: he told

retort, mixed with turpentine and hive-honey, and anoint yo

e inflicta sudant balsamum oleo gelato, albican

any fish, and yet assa

e chymical men, namely, from Sir George Hastings and others, an affirmation of t

by some a Skegger; but these, and others which I forbear to name, may be fish of another kind, and differ as we know a Herring and a Pilchard do, which, I think, are as

during life, their bodies adorned, the one with such red spots, and the other with such black or blackish spots, as give them such an addition of natural beauty as, I think, was neve

th day-c

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