THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 167 



CHAPTER XII. 



Observations of the Pearch, and Directions how to fish for him. 



PiscATOR. The pearch* is a very good, and a very bold-biting 

 fish : he is one of the fishes of prey, that, like the pike and trout, 

 carries his teeth in his mouth : which is very large, and he dare 

 venture to kill and devour several other kinds of fish ; he has a 

 hooked or hog back, which is armed with sharp and stiff bristles, 

 and all his skin armed or covered over with thick, dry, hard 

 scales ; and hath, which few other fish have, two fins on his 

 back ; he is so bold, that he will invade one of his own kind, 

 which the pike will not do so willingly ; and you may therefore 

 easily believe him to be a bold biter. 



The pearch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldrovandus, and 

 especially the least are there esteemed a dainty dish. And Ges- 

 ner prefers the pearch and pike above the trout, or any fresh- 

 water fish : he says, the Germans have this proverb, " More 

 wholesome than a pearch of Rhine :" and he says the river- 

 pearch is so wholesome, that physicians allow him to be eaten by 

 wounded men, or by men in fevers, or by women in child-bed. 



• Percafluviatilis. This beautiful fish abounds in fresh-water rivers 

 and lakes Its name is probably a contraction of Persika. It is to be dis- 

 tinguished from the pearch of the sea, which Aristotle treats of. Its flesh 

 has always been highly esteemed. Ausonius, Mosella (115-9), praises it 

 " as alone worthy of all river fishes to be compared with those of the sea, 

 even with the purple mullet." The notion of its healthfulness as food, 

 quoted by our author from Gesner, is abundantly borne out by medical au- 

 thors as Galen, Be Alimentorum Facultatibus (iii., 28), Hippocrates, De 

 Victus Ratione (ii.). Regimen Sanitatis Salernitatum (86). The friend- 

 ship of the pike for the pearch is clearly of a negative kind, as he only 

 fears his well-armed back, and will pouch a pearch whose sharp fins are 

 cut off as soon as any other morsel. Not only will the pearch assail one 

 of his own kind, if he can do so with safety, but a story is told of one that 

 was caught by his biting at his own eye, which had been torn out but the 

 moment before, and affixed to the hook. Our pearch {Percaflavescena) is 

 a distinct species. — im. Ed. 



