A UTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 29 



Who fell beside his lines and hooks and rod, 

 And the choked fisher sought his last abode. 

 His dust lies here. Stranger, this humble grave 

 An angler to a brother angler gave." 



The " Old Fathers " of the church have been cited as 

 contributors to the literature of fish and fishing, such as 

 Clemens Alexandrinus, Basil, Ambrose of Milan, Athan- 

 asius, Augustine, Isidore of Seville, and others ; but their 

 contributions in most cases are little more than allusions. 

 Isidore, however, in his De Ordine Creatnrarziin, gives an 

 account of fish, and the seas and rivers they inhabit ; and 

 the well-known passage, referred to by Izaak Walton, from 

 the Hexameron ; or, the Six Days' Work of Creation, by St. 

 Ambrose, anent the grayling {Salino tJiyinallus), always 

 deserves to be quoted as a happy description. The trans- 

 lation of the Latin may thus run : — 



" Nor shall I leave thee unhonoured in my discourse, O Thy- 

 mallus (grayling), whose name is given thee by a flower : whether 

 the waters of the Ticino produce thee or those of the pleasant 

 Atesis, a flower thou art. In fine, the common saying attests it ; 

 for it is pleasantly said of one who gives out an agreeable sweet- 

 ness, he smells either of fish or flower : thus the fragrance of the 

 fish is asserted to be the same as that of the flower. Wliat is 

 more pleasing than thy form? more delightful than thy sweet- 

 ness ? more fragrant than thy smell ? The fragrance of the 

 honey exhales from thy body." 



So gastronomically enchanted was the good bishop with 

 the grayling, that it is said he " never let it pass without 

 the honour of a discourse." 



Perhaps as a " curiosity of literature " connected with 

 fish, the sermon said to have been delivered by St. Anthony 

 of Padua (351 to 356 A.D.), to a "miraculous congregation 

 of fishes," may here be given. It is taken from a curious 



