THE COMPLETE ANGLER. FART I. 



These seem to be wonders ; but have had so many 

 confirmations from men of learning and credit, that you 

 need not doubt them. Nor are the number, nor the 

 various shapes , of fishes more strange, or more fit for 

 contemplation, than their different natures, inclina- 

 tions, and actions; concerning which, I shall beg 

 your patient ear a little longer. 



The Cuttle-fish will cast a long gut out of her throat, 

 which, like as an Angler doth his line, she sendeth 

 forth, and pulleth in again at her pleasure, according 



J Mont. Essays as S ^ ie sees some little fish come near to 

 and others affirm her; and the Cuttle-fish J, being then 

 this - hid in the gravel, lets the smaller fish 



nibble and bite the end of it; at which time she, by 

 little and little, draws the smaller fish so near to her, 

 that she may leap upon her, and then catches and de- 

 vours her : and for this reason, some have called this 

 fish the Sea-angler. 



And there is a fish called a Hermit, that, at a certain 

 age gets into a dead fish's shell ; and, like a hermit, 

 dwells there alone, studying the wind and weather ; 

 and so turns her shell, that she makes it defend her 

 from the injuries that they would bring upon her. 



There is also a fish, called by ^Elian * in his 9th book 

 Of Living Creatures, ch. 16. the Adonis, or Darling 

 of the Sea; so called, because it is a loving and inno- 

 cent fish, a fish that hurts nothing that hath life, and 

 is at peace with all the numerous inhabitants of that 

 vast \\ atry element ; and truly I think most Anglers 

 are, so, disposed to most of mankind . 



" raw fish, after he had crushed out the moisture. Oftentimes, he was 

 * brought to the church, where he sheiued no tokens of adoration" At 

 * length," says this author, " when he was not well looked to, he stole 

 t; away to the sea, and never after appeared." The wisdom of these 

 fishermen in taking the monster to church, calls to remembrance many 

 instances of similar sagacity recorded of the wise men of Gotham. Finding 

 him so indevout, we may suppose them to have been ready to exclaim 

 with Caliban, in the Tempest, 



" By this good light, a very shallow monster !" 

 * Claudius jfEliamts was born at Praeneste in Italy, in the reign of tht- 

 Emperor Adrian, Rewrote De Animalium natura t and OK Martial Dit- 

 tiplint. 



