THE COMPLETE ANGLER 227 



inches broad. He is of a slow motion, and usually lies 

 or lurks close in the mud, and has a movable string on 

 his head, about a span or near unto a quarter of a yard 

 long, by the moving of which, with his natural bait, 

 when he lies close and unseen in the mud, he draws 

 other fish so close to him that he can suck them into 

 his mouth, and so devours and digests them." 



And, scholar, do not wonder at this, for besides the 

 credit of the relator, you are to note, many of these, 

 and fishes that are of the like and more unusual shapes, 

 are very often taken on the mouths of our sea-rivers, 

 and on the sea-shore. And this will be no wonder to- 

 any that have travelled Egypt ; where 'tis known, the 

 famous River Nilus does not only breed fishes that yet 

 want names, but by the overflowing of that river, and the 

 help of the sun's heat on the fat slime which that river 

 leaves on the banks when it falls back into its natural 

 channel, such strange fish and beasts are also bred, that 

 no man can give a name to, as Grotius, in his Sophom, 

 and others, have observed ? 



But whither am I strayed in this discourse? I will 

 end it by telling you, that at the mouth of some of these 

 rivers of ours herrings are so plentiful, as namely, near 

 to Yarmouth in Norfolk, and in the west country pilchers 

 so very plentiful, as you will wonder to read what our 

 learned Camden relates of them in his Britannia, p. 178, 

 186. 



Well, scholar, I will stop here, and tell you what by 

 reading and conference I have observed concerning 

 fish-ponds. 



