192 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



You must fish for him with a small red-worm ; and if you bait 

 the ground with earth, it is excellent. 



There is also a bleak,* 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 

 flics to catch flies in the air, by which he lives, so does the bleak 

 at the top of the water. Ausonius would have him called Bleak 



* Bleak (Leuciscus Alhurnus of Cuvier) derives its name, according to 

 Merett, from a northern word, signifying to bleach or whiten. It is a very 

 lively little fish, giving, according to the method Walton suggests, great 

 sport to young fly-fishers. It is, as I think, the Alburnus of Ausonius, 

 prcedam puerilibus hamis {Mosella, 120). Sometimes these fish leap and 

 tumble about on the surface of the water in such a way that they are called 

 mad-bleak, which is owing to their being infested with a sort of vermes or 

 tape-worm. Daniel says that he took some out of bleak sixteen inches 

 long, though the fish rarely attains eight inches. On the inner surface of 

 the scales of roach, dace, white-bait (erroneously thought by some to be 

 the fry of bleak), but particularly the bleak, is found a silvery i)igment 

 which gives to their scales the lustre they have. From this is nuide the 

 imitation of the Oriental pearl sometimes known as Roman pearl. Pesson- 

 Maissoneuve {Manuel de Picheur, p. 71, sur VMle ou Ablette) gives the 

 process; which is, to "take off the scales of the bleak with care, put 

 them in a basin of clear water, rub them against each other, and repeat 

 the operation in different waters until no colored substance adheres to 

 them. The silvery matter is thus precipitated to the bottom, and the sur- 

 l)lus water turned off with great care ; when the deposit is what is termed 

 the Oriental essence. This is mixed with isinglass, and through a pipe 

 introduced with little globes of clear glass, which are shaken till the liquid 

 coats the inner surface." 



I omitted to say in the proper place, that the Bleak Hall, where Walton 

 and his friend were so pleasantly entertained, was about a mile from Ed- 

 monton, say six miles from London, on the river Lea; where, according to 

 Salter {Angler's Guide, p. 32S, ed. 1825), tliere is now an angling Inn of 

 the same name, " for many years well known and resorted to." — im. Ed. 



