THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 19 



other elements, and must allow it the chiefest in the mixtion of 

 all livinsf creatures. 



There be that profess to believe that all bodies are made of 

 water, and may be reduced back again to water only : they 

 endeavor to demonstrate it thus : 



Take a willow, or any like speedy growing plant, newly rooted 

 in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh them all together exactly 

 when the trees begin to grow, and then weigh all altogether after 

 the tree is increased from its first rooting to weigh an hundred 

 pound weight more than when it was first rooted and weighed ; 

 and you shall find this augment of the tree to be without the 

 diminution of one dram weight of the earth. Hence thev infer 

 this increase of wood to be from water or rain, or from dew, and 

 not to be from any other element. And they affirm, they can 

 reduce this wood back again to water ; and they affirm also the 

 same may be done in any animal or vegetable. And this I take 

 to be a fair testimony of the excellency of my element of water. 



The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, the earth 

 hath no fruitfulness without showers or dews; for all the herbs, 

 and flowers, and fruits, are produced and thrive by the water ; 

 and the very minerals are fed by streams that run under ground, 

 whose natural course carries them to the tops of many high 

 mountains, as we see by several springs breaking forth on the 

 tops of the highest hills ; and this is also witnessed by the daily 

 trial and testimony of several miners.* 



Nay, the increase of those creatures that are bred and fed in 

 the water, are not only more and more miraculous, but more 

 advantageous to man, not only for the lengthening of his life, 

 but for the preventing of sickness ; for it is observed by the most 

 learned physicians, that the casting off of Lent and other fish 

 days, which hath not only given the lie to so many learned, 

 pious, wise founders of colleges, for which we should be ashamed, 

 hath doubtless been the chief cause of those many putrid, shak- 

 ing, intermitting agues, unto which this nation of ours is now 

 more subject than those wiser countries that feed on herbs, sal- 



• There is scarcely need of repeating that Walton does not excel as a 

 physical philosopher, and was easily led astray by the crude hypotheses 

 then advanced. — im. Ed. 



