14-0 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I, 



CHAPTER IV. 



Observations of the NATURE and BREEDING of the 

 TROUT, and how to jishfor him. And the Milk- 

 maid's Song. 



PISCATOR. 



THE Trout is a fish highly valued, both in this and 

 foreign nations. He may be justly said, as the old 

 poet said of wine, and we English say of venison, to be 

 a generous fish : a fish that is so like the buck, that he 

 also has his seasons ; for it is observed, that he comes in 

 and goes out of season with the stag and buck. Gesner 

 says, his name is of a German offspring ; and he says 

 he is a fish that feeds clean and purely, in the swiftest 

 streams, and on the hardest gravel ; and that he may 

 justly contend with all fresh- water fish, as the Mullet 

 may with all sea-fish, for precedency and daintiness of 

 taste; and that being in right season, the most dainty 

 palates have allowed precedency to him. 



And before I go farther into my discourse, let me 

 tell you, that you are to observe, that as there be some 

 barren Does that are good in summer y so there be some 

 barren Trouts that are good in winter ; but there are not 

 many that are so ; for usually they be in their perfection 

 in the month of May, and decline with the buck. Now 

 you are to take notice, That in several countries as 

 in Germany, and in other parts compared to ours, 

 fish do differ much in their bigness and shape, and 

 other ways ; and so do Trouts. It is well known, that 

 in the lake Leman, the Lake of Geneva, there are Trouts 

 taken of three cubits long ; as is affirmed by Gesner, a 

 writer of good credit: And Mercator* says, the Trouts 



* Gerard Mercator^ of Ruremond in Flanders, a man of so intense appli- 

 cation to mathematical studies, that he neglected the necessary refresh- 

 ments of nature. He engraved with his own hand, and coloured, the 

 maps to his geographical writings. He wrote several books of Theology ; 

 and died 1594, 



