The Fourth Day in 



says, the Salmon, the Grayling, and Trout, and all 

 fish that live in clear and sharp streams, are made 

 by their mother Nature of such exact shape and 

 pleasant colours purposely to invite us to a joy 

 and contentedness in feasting with her. Whether 

 this is a truth or not, is not my purpose to dis- 

 pute : but 'tis certain, all that write of the Umber 

 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 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 fly made of the 

 red feathers of a paroquet, a strange outlandish bird ; 

 and he will rise at a fly not unlike a gnat, or a small 

 moth, or, indeed, at most flies that are not too big. 



