CHAPTER XVII 



OF ROACH AND DACE, AND HOW TO FISH FOR 

 THEM J AND OF CADIS 



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VEN. Good master, as we go now towards London, be 

 still so courteous as to give me more instructions : for 

 I have several boxes in my memory, in which I will keep 

 them all very safe, there shall not one of them be lost. 



Pise. Well, scholar, that I will : and I will hide 

 nothing from you that I can remember, and can think 

 may help you forward towards a perfection in this art. 

 And because we have so much time, and I have said so 

 little of roach and dace, I will give you some directions 

 concerning them. 



Some say the Roach is so called from rutilus, which 

 they say signifies red fins. He is a fish of no great 

 reputation for his dainty taste; and his spawn is 

 accounted much better than any part of him. And you 

 may take notice, that as the carp is accounted the water- 

 fox for his cunning ; so the roach is accounted the water- 

 sheep for his simplicity or foolishness. It is noted, that 

 the roach and dace recover strength, and grow in season 

 a fortnight after spawning ; the barbel and chub in a 

 month : the trout in four months ; and the salmon in the 

 like time, if he gets into the sea, and after into fresh 

 water. 



Roaches be accounted much better in the river than 

 in a pond, though ponds usually breed the biggest. 

 But there is a kind of bastard small roach, that breeds 



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