ii8 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PARTI. 



daytime : for Gesner observes, the Otter smells a fish forty fur- 

 longs off him in the water : and that it may be true, seems to be 

 affirmed by Sir Francis Bacon, in the eighth century of his Natural 

 History, who there proves that waters may be the medium of 

 sounds, by demonstrating it thus : " That if you knock two stones 

 together very deep under the water, those that stand on a bank 

 near to that place may hear the noise without any diminution of 

 it by the water." He also offers the like experiment concerning 

 the letting an anchor fall, by a very long cable or rope, on a rock, 

 or the sand, within the sea. And this being so well observed and 

 demonstrated as it is by that learned man, has made me to believe 

 that Eels unbed themselves and stir at the noise of thunder, and 

 not only, as some think, by the motion or stirring of the earth 

 which is occasioned by that thunder. 



And this reason of Sir Francis Bacon,* has made me crave 

 pardon of one that I laughed at for affirming that he knew Carps 

 come to a certain place, in a pond, to be fed at the ringing of a 

 bell or the beating of a drum. And, however, it shall be a rule 

 for me to make as little noise as I can when I am fishing, until 

 Sir Francis Bacon be confuted, which I shall give any man leave to 

 do.sf 



And lest you may think him singular in this opinion, I will tell 

 you, this seems to be believed by our learned Doctor Hakewill, 

 who in his Apology of God's power and providence,^ quotes 

 Pliny to report that one of the emperors had particular fish-ponds, 



VARIATION. 



8 In thejlrst edition, Walton adds here, "and so leave off this philosophical discourse, 

 for a discourse of fishing ; " and continues, " of which my next shall be to tell you, it is 

 certain, that certain fields," c., as in a subsequent part of the text with the exception of 

 the passage from St James, which was inserted in the third edition. 



* Exper. 792. 



t That fish hear, is confirmed by the authority of late writers : Swammerdam asserts 

 it, and adds, that "they have a wonderful labyrinth of the ear for that purpose." See 

 Swammerdam, Of Insects, edit. London, 1758, p. 50. A clergyman, a friend of mine, 

 assures me, that at the abbey of St Bernard, near Antwerp, he saw Carp come at the 

 whistling of the feeder. H. 



\ "f. 360." This book, which was published in folio, 1635, and is full of excellent 

 learning and good sense, contains an examination and censure of that common error 

 which philosophers have fallen into, "that there is in nature a perpetual and universal 

 decay ;" the contrary whereof, after an extensive view of the history of the physical and 

 moral world, and a judicious and impartial comparison of former ages with that wherein 

 the author lived, is with great force of argument demonstrated. The reader may, in this 

 book, meet with a relation of that instance of Lord Cromwell's gratitude to Sig. Fresco- 

 baldi, a Florentine merchant, which is given, in a dramatic form, in the History of 

 Thomas Lord Cromwell, published as Shakespeare's by some of the earlier editors of 

 his works. H. See Le Neve's Fasti. Lloyd's Memoirs, p. 540. Wood's Hist, and 

 Antiq. Oxon. 1. ii. p. 204. Athett. Oxon. 1. ii. 64. Dr Hakewill was rector of Exeter 

 College, Oxford : and had the living of Heanton, near Barnstaple, in Devonshire, where 

 he died in the beginning of April 1649. E. 



