THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 193 



from his whitish color : his back is of a pleasant sad or sea-water 

 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 

 Pater-noster line,f 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 color, 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 hazle top about five or six feet 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, this bird-angler standing 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 most 

 excellent meat. 



And let me tell you, that I have known a hern that did con- 

 stantly frequent one place, caught with a hook baited with a big 

 minnow or a small gudgeon. The line and hook must be strong, 

 and tied to some loose staff, so big that she cannot fly away with 

 it, a line not exceeding two yards. 



* Allamot is most probably a corruption of Alto Monte in Calabria, 

 where there is a salt mine, formerly of great value and much worked, 

 though now neglected. Even that acrid salt could hardly turn a bleak into 

 an anchovy. — Am. Ed. 



t A Pater-noster line is a line of gut or twisted hair, on which are tied, 

 about eight inches apart beginning at the bottom, three or more hooks on 

 snells (or pieces of gut) about three inches or less long. As the hooks are 

 distributed somewhat like the beads of a rosary, Hawkins says " it is called 

 a Pater-noster." — Am. Ed. 

 10 



