164 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



atheist : -but it may win something, in point of believing 

 it, to him that considers the breeding or renovation of 

 the silk-worm, and of many insects. And that is con- 

 siderable, which Sir Francis Bacon observes in his History 

 of Life and Death (fol. 20), that there be some herbs that 

 die and spring every year, and some endure longer. 



But though some do not, yet the French esteem this 

 fish highly, and to that end have this proverb, " He that 

 hath breams in his pond is able to bid his friend welcome." 



BREAM 



And it is noted, that the best part of a bream is his belly 

 and head. 



Some say that breams and roaches will mix their eggs 

 and melt together, and so there is in many places a bastard 

 breed of breams, that never come to be either large or 

 good, but very numerous. 



The baits good to catch this bream are many. 1. Paste 

 made of brown bread and honey, gentles, or the brood 

 of wasps that be young, and then not unlike gentles, 

 and should be hardened in an oven, or dried on a tile 

 before the fire, to make them tough ; or there is at the root 

 of docks or flags, or rushes in watery places, a worm not 

 unlike a maggot, at which tench will bite freely. Or he 

 will bite at a grasshopper with his legs nipped off, in June 



