126 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



declare him to be very medicinable. And Gesner 

 says, that the fat of an umber or grayling, being set, 

 with a little honey, a day or two in the sun, in a little 

 glass, is very excellent against redness, or swarthiness, or 

 anything that breeds in the eyes. Salvian takes him 

 to be called umber from his swift swimming, or gliding 

 out of sight more like a shadow or a ghost than a fish. 

 Much more might be said both of his smell and taste : 

 but I shall only tell you, that St. Ambrose, the glorious 

 bishop of Milan, who lived when the Church kept fasting 

 days, calls him the flower-fish, or flower of fishes ; and 



,7^^'V^rr^ 



GRAYLINO 



that he was so far in love with him that he would not 

 let him pass without the honour of a long discourse ; 

 but I must, and pass on to tell you how to take this 

 dainty fish. 



First, note, that he grows not to the bigness of a 

 trout ; for the biggest of them do not usually exceed 

 eighteen inches. He lives in such rivers as the trout 

 does, and is usually taken with the same baits as the 

 trout is, and after the same manner ; for he will bite 

 both at the minnow, or worm, or fly : though he bites 

 not often at the minnow, and is very gamesome at the 

 fly, and much simpler, and therefore bolder than a 

 trout ; for he will rise twenty times at a fly, if you miss 

 him, and yet rise again. He has been taken with a 



