102 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



year, and fasts three in the river of Fordidge. 

 And you are to note that those townsmen are very 

 punctual in observing the time of beginning to fish 

 for them, and boast much that their river affords a 

 trout that exceeds all others. And just so does 

 Sussex boast of several fish, as, namely, a Shelsey 

 cockle, a Chichester lobster, an Arundel mullet, 

 and an Amerly trout. 



And, now, for some confirmation of the Fordidge 

 trout, you are to know that this trout is thought to 

 eat nothing in the fresh water ; and it may be the 

 better believed because it is well known that swal- 

 lows and bats and wagtails which are called half- 

 year birds, and not seen to fly in England for six 

 months in the year, but about Michaelmas leave 

 us for a hotter climate yet some of them that 

 have been left behind their fellows have been 

 found, many thousands at a time, in hollow trees 

 or clay caves, where they have been observed to 

 live and sleep out the whole winter without meat. 

 And so Albertus observes that there is one kind 

 of frog that hath her mouth naturally shut up 

 about the end of August, and that she lives 

 so all the winter; and though it be strange to 

 some, yet it is known to too many among us to 

 be doubted. 



And so much for these Fordidge trouts, which 

 never afford an angler sport, but either live their 

 time of being in the fresh water by their meat 

 formerly gotten in the sea, not unlike the swallow 

 or frog, or by the virtue of the fresh water only, 



