804 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



does not deserve the oft-quoted patronymic given it by St. Ambrose of 

 "flower of fishes" at any rate, not from its nsnal smell. For the 

 name grayling there is a better justification. The fish usually is of a 

 silvery greyish appearance hence grayling. 



The other title, of umber (from umbra, shadow), is also well deserved. 

 Unquestionably the fish is one of the swiftest and most fluent of 

 swimmers, aro its dark back, as it shoots in summer from one side 

 of a stream to the other, lends it a shadow-like appearance which might 

 well suggest this name. This explanation is given by Hippolito Tolivani 

 in his " De Piscibus cum eorum Figuris." Says Ausonius 



Effulgens oculos celat levis umbra natatu. 

 The smooth-scaled umbra, as it passes by, 

 Flits as a shadow o'er the gazer's eye. 



But Cotton tortures another derivation out of umber, and says it is from 

 some shadowy markings occasionally found on its belly and head a far- 

 fetched idea, which need not occupy us a moment. The first is un- 

 doubtedly the true explanation. 



Of course the grayling is "very medicinable " ! Walton quotes Gesner 

 to the effect that the fat, " being set with a little honey a day or two in 

 the sun, in a little glass, is very excellent against redness or swarthiness, 

 or anything that breeds in the eyes." Let the ladies take a hint from 

 this. 



As before indicated by the title, the " flower of fishes," applied 

 to it by St. Ambrose, the grayling must have been held in high 

 estimation. And, as may be supposed, when angling as a " fine art " 

 was not, this estimation was based on some real or fancied gastronomic 

 excellence. Thus " The Boke of St. Albans : " " The grayllynge, by 

 another name called umbre, is a delycyous fysshe to manny mouthes." 

 It should be cooked as soon as possible after it is out of the water. 

 Gesner names it as the choicest of Swiss fish. Italy and France also 

 esteem it; and our own Cotton says: "His flesh, even in his worst 

 season, is so firm, and will so easily calver, that in plain truth he is 

 very good meat at all times, but in his perfect season ... I think him so 

 good a fish as to be little inferior to the best trout that ever I tasted in 

 my life." 



For my own part, I am more inclined to compare it with the carp 

 than trout, as about on an equal with that fish, both being, of course, 

 in good condition. Perhaps in saying this I am unconsciously follow- 

 ing the story told in that quaint old book, written by nobody knows 

 whom, " Dialogus Creaturum Moralizatus," published first in 1480, and 

 which I referred to when speaking of the carp. I advise all curious 



