chap, x.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 1G9 



likes the water and air, he will grow not onlv to 

 be very large, but as fat as a hog. He is by Gesner 

 taken to be more pleasant, or sweet, than whole- 

 some : this fish is long in growing, but breeds 

 exceedingly in a water that pleases him ; yea, in 

 many ponds so fast, as to over-store them, and 

 starve the other fish. 



He is very broad with a forked tail, and his scales 

 set in excellent order : he hath large eyes, and a 

 narrow sucking mouth ; he hath two sets of teeth, 

 and a lozenge-like bone, a bone to help his grinding. 

 The melter is observed to have two large melts, 

 and the female two large bags of eggs or spawn. 



Gesner reports, that in Poland, a certain and a 

 great number of large Breams were put into a pond, 

 which in the next following winter were frozen up 

 into one entire ice, and not one drop of water re- 

 maining, nor one of these fish to be found, though 

 they were diligently searched for ; and yet the next 

 spring when the ice was thawed, and the weather 

 warm, and fresh water got into the pond, he affirms 

 they all appeared again. This Gesner affirms, and I 

 quote my author, because it seems almost as incre- 

 dible as the resurrection to an atheist. But it may 

 win something in point of believing it, to him that 

 considers the breeding or renovation of the silk- 

 worm, and of many insects. And that is considerable 

 which Sir Francis Bacon observes in his " History of 

 Life and Death," fol. 20, that there be some herbs that 

 die and spring every year, and some endure longer. 



