CHAP. XV. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 275 



or fresh-water Sprat; a fish that is ever in motion, 

 and, therefore, called by some the river-swallow, 

 for just as you shall observe the swallow to be, 

 most evenings in summer, ever in motion, making 

 short and quick turns when he flies to catch flies, 

 in the air, by which he lives ; so does the Bleak 

 at the top of the water. Ausonins would have him 

 called Bleak from his whitish colour : his back is of 

 a pleasant sad- or seawater-green ; his belly, white 

 and shining as the mountain snow. And doubtless, 

 though he have the fortune which virtue has, in 

 poor people to be neglected ; yet the Bleak ought 

 to be much valued, though we want Allamot salt, 

 and the skill, that the Italians have, to turn them 

 into anchovies. This fish may be caught with 

 a Paternoster line*; that is, Six or eight very 

 small hooks tied along the line, one half a foot 

 above the other : I have seen five caught thus at 

 one time ; and the bait has been gentles, than which 

 none is better. 



Or, this fish may be caught with a fine small 

 artificial fly, which is to be of a very sad brown 

 colour, and very small, and the hook answerable. 

 There is no better sport than whipping for Bleaks. 

 in a boat, or on a bank in the swift water, in a 

 Summer's evening; with a hazel top about five or 

 six foot long, and a line twice the length of the 

 rod : I have heard Sir Henry Wotton say, that 

 there be many that, in Italy, will catch swallows so, 

 ~-or, especially, martins t; this bird-angler stand- 

 ing on the top of a steeple to do it, and with a line 

 twice so long as I have spoken of. And let me tell 

 you, scholar ! that both Martins and Bleaks be mosjt 

 excellent meat. 



* A rosary or string of beads, is used by the Roman Catholic devotees 

 to assist them in numbering their Pater-nosters or prayers? aline with 

 many hooks at small distances from each other, though it little re- 

 sembles a string of beads, is thence called a Pater-nosier line. 



f This is a common practice in England. 

 Q 3 



