148 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART i. 



as much claret wine as will only cover him ; and season your 

 claret well with salt, cloves, and mace, and the rinds of oranges 

 and lemons. That done, cover your pot and set it on a quick 

 fire till it be sufficiently boiled. Then take out the Carp ; and 

 lay it, with the broth, into the dish ; and pour upon it a quarter of 

 a pound of the best fresh butter, melted, and beaten with half-a- 

 dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and 

 some of the herbs shred : garnish your dish with lemons, and so 

 serve it up. And much good do you ! Dr T. 



PlSCATOR. THE Bream being, at a full growth, is a large and 



stately fish. He will breed both in rivers and ponds : * but loves 



CHAP. X. best to live in ponds, and where, if he likes the 



On the Bream. wa ter and air, he will grow not only to be very large, 

 but as fat as a hog. He is by Gesner taken to be more pleasant, 

 or sweet, than wholesome. This fish is long in growing ; but 

 breeds exceedingly in a water that pleases him ; yea, in many 

 ponds so fast, as to overstore them, and starve the other fish. 3 



He is very broad, with a forked tail, and his scales set in ex- 

 cellent order : he hath large eyes, and a narrow sucking mouth ; 

 he hath two sets of teeth, and a lozenge-like bone, a bone to help 

 his grinding. The melter is observed to have two large melts ; 

 and the female, two large bags of eggs or spawn. 



Gesner reports, that in Poland a certain and a great number of 

 large Breams were put into a pond, which in the next following 

 winter were frozen up into one entire ice, and not one drop of 

 water remaining, nor one of these fish to be found, though they 

 were diligently searched for ; and yet the next spring, when the 

 ice was thawed, and the weather warm, and fresh water got 

 into the pond, he affirms they all appeared again. This Gesner 

 affirms ; and I quote my author, because it seems almost as incred- 



VARIATION. 



3 The ensuing observations, in the text, on the Bream, and the method of fishing for 

 him, were added in the second edition. In the first, the instructions on the subject are 

 thus briefly given : "The baits good for to catch the Bream are many : as, namely, 

 young wasps and a paste made of brown bread and honey, or gentles, or especially a 

 worm that is not much unlike a maggot which you will find at the roots of docks or of flags, 

 or of rushes that grow in the water, or watery places, arid a grasshopper having his legs 

 nipt off, or a fly that is in June and July to be found amongst the green reed growing by 

 the water-side, those are said to be excellent baits. I doubt not but there be many- 

 others, that both the Bream and the Carp also would bite at : but these, time and experi- 

 ence will teach you how to find out. And so having according to my promise given 

 you these short observations concerning the Bream, I shall also give you some observa- 

 tions concerning the Tench, and those also very briefly." 



* The Bream is a native of many parts of' Europe, inhabiting the larger kind of lakes, 

 still rivers, &c., and is sometimes seen even in the Caspian Sea. See Shaw's Zoology, 

 vol. v. part i. p. 196. E. 



