106 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I, 



sure they have appeared so to me, and made many an 

 hour pass away more pleasantly, as 1 have sate quietly 

 on a flowery bank by a calm river, and contemplated 

 what I shall now relate to you. 



And first concerning rivers ; there be so many won- 

 ders reported and written of them, and of the several 

 creatures that be bred and live in them, and those by 

 authors of so ^ood credit, that we need not to deny them 

 an historical faith. 



As namely of a river in Epirus, that puts out any 

 lighted torch, and kindles any torch that was not light- 

 ed. Some waters being drunk, cause madness, some 

 drunkenness, and some laughter to death . The river Se- 

 larus in a few hours turns a rod or wand to stone : and 

 our Gamden mentions the like in England, and the like 

 In Lochmere in Ireland. There is also a river in Arabia, 

 of which all the sheep that drink thereof have their 

 wool turned into a vermilion colour. And one of no less 

 credit than Aristotle, tells us of a merry river, the river 

 Elusina, that dances at the noise of musick, for with 

 musick it bubbles, dances, and grows sandy, and so 

 continues till the musick ceases, but then it presently re- 

 turns to its wonted calmness and clearness. And Cam- 

 den tells us of a well near to Kirby in Westmoreland, 

 that ebbs and flows several times every day : and he tells 

 us of a river in Surrey, it is called Mole, that after it 

 lias run several miles, being opposed by hills, finds or 

 makes itself a way under ground, and breaks out again 

 so far off, that the inhabitants thereabout boast, as the 

 Spaniards do of their river Anus, that they feed divers 

 flocks of sheep upon a bridge. And lastly, for I would 

 not tire your patience, one of no less authority than Jo- 

 sephus, that learned Jew, tells us of a river in Judea 

 that runs swiftly all the six days of the week, and stands 

 still and rests all their sabbath. 



But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers, and tell 

 you some things of the monsters, or fish, call them, 

 what you will, that they breed and feed in them. Pliny 

 the philosopher says, in the third chapter of his ninth 

 book, that in the Indian sea, the fish called Balcena or 

 [Whirl-pool, is so long and broad, as to take up more 



