PRINCIPAL KIVERS IN K^GLAND. 143 



Gives way, y ,a, now retiring, following now 

 Across the stream, exhai-«s?t his idle rage. 

 Till floating broad upon his breathless side, ' 

 And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore 

 You gailj drag your unresisting prize. 



CHAP. VI. 



i< 



'^ Of the principal Rivers in England^ and parli- 

 cularhj of tlie Thames. 



THE rivers in England are said by Dr. Heij^ 

 lin, to be three hundred and twenty-five, 

 though others increase their number to four 

 hundred and fifty. It would be superfluous here 

 to treat particularly of tlicir diversities, their 

 situations, their distance and remoteness from 

 each otiier, their nearness or vicinity to the sea, 

 the qualities of their water, and the various 

 species of fish they contain. Those that have a 

 more immediate intercourse with the sea, partake 

 of its influences, and have the same vicissitudes, 

 the same fluxes and refluxes, the same salt water, 

 and the same sort of fish which frequent those 

 seas where they disembogue themselves. The 

 mouth of rivers ai'e too deep to be fathomed by 

 the cordage of a line; but more inland and far- 

 ther distant from the common receptacle of 

 waters, the rivers are most proper for the angler's 

 diversion. 



The principal rivers in England, are the 

 Thames, .Severn, Trent, Tyne, Tweed, INledway, 

 Tees, Dove, I sis, Tame, Willey, Avon, Lea, 



* The angler must observe, that the names of Wye, Avon, 

 Ousc, Stone, and some otlicis, are eommou to many rivers id 

 England, as thut uf Dulas is to uumbtisin Wales. 



