CHAP. VIIL] THE FOURTH DAY. 135 



hatch, but breed her young alive, which she does not then for- 

 sake, but bides with them, and in case of danger will take them 

 all into her mouth and swim away from any apprehended danger, 

 and then let them out again when she thinks all danger to be 

 past : these be accidents that we Anglers sometimes see, and 

 often talk of. 



But whither am I going ? 1 had almost lost myself, by remember- 

 ing the discourse of Dubravius. I will therefore stop here ; and 

 tell you, according to my promise, how to catch this Pike. 



His feeding is usually of fish or frogs ; and sometimes a weed 

 of his own, called pickerel-weed, of which I told you some think 

 Pikes are bred ; for they have observed, that where none have 

 been put into ponds, yet they have there found many ; and that 

 there has been plenty of that weed in those ponds, and that that 

 weed both breeds and feeds them : but whither those Pikes, so 

 bred, will ever breed by generation as the others do, I shall leave 

 to the disquisitions of men of more curiosity and leisure than I 

 profess myself to have : and shall proceed to tell you, that you 

 may fish for a Pike, either with a ledger or a walking bait ; and 

 you are to note, that I call that a Ledger-bait, which is fixed or 

 made to rest in one certain place when you shall be absent from 

 it ; and I call that a Walking-bait, which you take with you, and 

 have ever in motion. Concerning which two, I shall give you 

 this direction ; that your ledger-bait is best to be a living bait 

 (though a dead one may catch), whether it be a fish or a frog: 

 and that you may make them live the longer, you may, or indeed 

 you must, take this course : 



First, for your LIVE-BAIT. Of fish, a roach or dace is, I think, 

 best and most tempting ; and a perch is the longest lived on a 

 hook, and having cut off his fin on his back, which may be done 

 without hurting him, you must take your knife, which cannot be 

 too sharp, and betwixt the head and the fin on the back, cut or 

 make an incision, or such a scar, as you may put the arming-wire 

 of your hook into it, with as little bruising or hurting the fish as 

 art and diligence will enable you to do ; and so carrying your 

 arming-wire along his back, unto or near the tail of your fish, 

 betwixt the skin and the body of it, draw out that wire or arming 

 of your hook at another scar near to his tail : then tie him about 

 it with thread, but no harder than of necessity, to prevent hurting 

 the fish ; and the better to avoid hurting the fish, some have a 

 kind of probe to open the way for the more easy entrance and 

 passage of your wire or arming : but as for these, time and a 



