The Fifth Day 191 



worm, and in hot weather makes excellent sport for 

 young anglers, or boys, or women that love that 

 recreation. And in the spring they make of them 

 excellent Minnow-tansies; for being washed well 

 in salt, and their heads and tails cut off, and their 

 guts taken out, and not washed after, they prove 

 excellent for that use ; that is, being fried with yolk 

 of eggs, the flowers of cowslips and of primroses, 

 and a little tansy ; thus used they make a dainty 

 dish of meat. 



The LOACH is, as I told you, a most dainty fish 

 he breeds and feeds in little and clear swift brooks 

 or rills, and lives there upon the gravel, and in the 

 sharpest streams : he grows not to be above a finger 

 long, and no thicker than is suitable to that length. 

 The Loach is not unlike the shape of the Eel : he 

 has a beard or wattles like a barbel. He has two 

 fins at his sides, four at his belly, and one at his tail ; 

 he is dappled with many black or brown spots ; his 

 mouth is barbel-like under his nose. This fish is 

 usually full of eggs or spawn ; and is by Gesner, and 

 other learned physicians, commended for great 

 nourishment, and to be very grateful both to the 

 palate and stomach of sick persons. He is to be 

 fished for with a very small worm, at the bottom ; 

 for he very seldom, or never, rises above the gravel, 

 on which I told you he usually gets his living. 



The MILLER'S-THUMB, or BULL-HEAD, is a fish 

 of no pleasing shape. He is by Gesner compared 

 to the Sea-toad-fish, for his similitude and shape. 

 It has a head big and flat, much greater than 

 suitable to his body; a mouth very wide, and 

 usually gaping ; he is without teeth, but his lips are 

 very rough, much like to a file. He hath two fins 

 near to his gills, which be roundish or crested ; two 

 fins also under the belly ; two on the back ; one 

 below the vent ; and the fin of his tail is round. 



