THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 181 



And I will beg a little more of your attention to tell you, that 

 Aldrovandus and divers physicians commend the eel very niucli 

 for medicine, though not for meat. But let me tell you one ob- 

 servation, that the eel is never out of season, as trouts and most 

 other fish are at set times ; at least most eels are not. 



I might here speak of many other fish whose shape and nature 

 are much like the eel, and frequent both the sea and fresh rivers ; 

 as namely, the lamprel, the lamprey, and the lamperne ; as also 

 of the mighty Conger, taken often in Severn about Gloucester ; 

 and might also tell in what high esteem many of them are for 

 the curiosity of their taste : but these are not so proper to be 

 talked of by me, because they make us anglers no sport ; there- 

 fore I will let them alone, as the Jews do, to whom they are for- 

 bidden by their law.* 



And, Scholar, there is also a flounder,| a sea-fish, which will 

 wander very far into fresh rivers, and there lose himself, and 

 dwell and thrive to a lifend's breadth, and almost twice so long ; 

 a fish without scales, and most excellent meat ; and a fish that 

 affords much sport to the angler, with any small worm, but espe- 

 cially a little bluish worm, gotten out of marsh-ground or mea- 

 dows, which should be well scoured ; but this, though it be most 

 excellent meat, yet it wants scales, and is, as I told you, therefore 

 an abomination to the Jews. 



But, Scholar, there is a fish that they in Lancashire boast 

 very much of, called a char,:}: taken there, and I think there only, 



* Fish with scales were clean, those without unclean, by the law of 

 Moses. Levit. xi., 9, 10; Deut. xiv., 9, 10. — Am. Ed. 



t The flounder (in Walton, Platessa Vulgaris), of which there are 

 several varieties in our waters, affords brisk and pleasant sport, especially 

 in the latter part of summer, in the Long Island bays, when they are often 

 taken weighing five pounds, some say more. They are fished for at bot- 

 tom, with muscles, crabs or clams, and the worm. The hook should be 

 small, as is the flounder's mouth. — Am. Ed. 



X The charr, Salmo Salvelinus, and, according to M. Agassiz, the 

 Ombre Chevalier of the Lake of Geneva. It is found in the lakes of Cum- 

 berland, in some of the Scotch lochs, and in many of the Irish. The 

 most successful mode of fishing for them is trolling with a minnow on 

 a long line sunk deep in the water ; though it sometimes takes the fly. It 

 is pronounced by Hofland the most beautiful of the Salmonidaj. Tl»e com- 



