124 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i. 



if I had had the luck to have taken up that rod, 

 then 'tis twenty to one, he should not have broke 

 my line by running to the rod's end, as you suffered 

 him. I would have held him within the bent of 

 my rod, unless he had been fellow to the great 

 Trout that is near an ell long, which was of such 

 a length and depth, that he had his picture drawn, 

 and now is to be seen at mine Host Rickabie's, at 

 the George in Ware ; and it may be, by giving that 

 very great Trout the rod, that is, by casting it to 

 him into the water, I might have caught him at the 

 long run ; for so I use always to do when I meet 

 with an overgrown fish, and you will learn to do so 

 too hereafter : for I tell you, Scholar, fishing is an 

 art, or, at least, it is an art to catch fish. 



Ven. But Master, I have heard that the great 

 Trout you speak of is a Salmon. 



Pise. Trust me, Scholar, I know not what to say 

 to it. There are many country-people that believe 

 Hares change sexes every year : And there be very 

 many learned men think so too, for in their dissect- 

 ing them they find many reasons to incline them to 

 that belief. And to make the wonder seem yet less, 

 that hares change sexes, note, that Doctor Mer. 

 Casaubon affirms, in his book " Of Credible and Incre- 

 dible things," that Gaspar Peucerus, a learned Phy- 

 sician, tells us of a people that once a-year turn 

 wolves, partly in shape, and partly in conditions. 

 And so, whether this were a Salmon when he came 

 into the fresh-water, and his not returning into the 



