CHAPTER XV, 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE GUDGEON, THE RUFFE, AND 

 THE BLEAK, AND HOW TO FISH FOR THEM. 



DISC A TOR, The gudgeon is reputed a. fish of 

 excellent taste and to be very wholesome ; he is 

 of a fine shape, of a silver color, and beautified with 

 black spots both on his body and tail. He breeds 

 two or three times in the year, and always in 

 summer. He is commended for a fish of excel- 

 lent nourishment ; the Germans call him ground- 

 ling, by reason of his feeding on the ground ; and 

 he there feasts himself in sharp streams and on the 

 gravel. He and the barbel both feed so, and do 

 not hunt for flies at any time, as most other fishes 

 do : he is an excellent fish to enter a young angler, 

 being easy to be taken with a small red worm, on 

 or very near to the ground. He is one of those 

 leather-mouthed fish that has his teeth in his 

 throat, and will hardly be lost from off the hook 

 if he be once strucken. They be usually scattered 

 up and down every river in the shallows, in the 

 heat of summer ; but in autumn, when the weeds 

 begin to grow sour or rot, and the weather colder, 

 then they gather together and get into the deeper 



