The Compleat ^Angler 



water-thyme, and smells of it at his first taking out of the water ; 

 and they may think so with as good reason as we do that our smelts 

 smell like violets at their first being caught, which I think is a truth. 

 Aldrovandus says, the salmon, the grayling, and trout, and all fish 

 that live in clear and sharp streams, are made by their mother nature 

 of such exact shape and pleasant colours purposely to invite us to a 

 joy and contentedness in feasting with her. Whether this is a truth 

 or not it is not my purpose to dispute ; but 'tis certain, all that 

 write of the umber declare him to be very medicinable. And Gesner 

 says, that the fat of an umber or grayling, being set, with a little 

 honey, a day or two in the sun, in a little glass, is very excellent 

 against redness, or swarthiness, or anything that breeds in the eyes. 

 Salvian takes him to be called umber from his swift swimming, or 

 gliding out of sight, more like a shadow or a ghost than a fish. 

 Much more might be said both of his smell and taste ; but I shall 

 only tell you, that St. Ambrose, the glorious bishop of Milan (who 

 lived when the church kept fasting days) calls him the flower-fish, or 

 flower of fishes : and that he was so far in love with him that he 

 would not let him pass without the honour of a long discourse ; but 

 I must, and pass on to tell you how to take this dainty fish. 



First, note, that he grows not to the bigness of a trout ; for the 

 biggest of them do not usually exceed eighteen inches. He lives in 

 such rivers as the trout does, and is usually taken with the same 

 baits as the trout is, and after the same manner; for he will bite 

 both at the minnow, or worm, or fly ; though he bites not often at 

 the minnow, and is very gamesome at the fly, and much simpler, and 

 therefore bolder than a trout ; for he will rise twenty times at a fly, 

 if you miss him, and yet rise again. He has been taken with a fly 

 made of the red feathers of a parakita, a strange outlandish bird ; 

 and he will rise at a fly not unlike a gnat or a small moth, or indeed 

 at most flies that are not too big. He is a fish that lurks close all 

 winter, but is very pleasant and jolly after mid-April, and in May, 

 and in the hot months : he is of a very fine shape, his flesh is white ; 

 his teeth, those little ones that he has, are in his throat, yet he has so 

 tender a mouth, that he is oftener lost after an angler has hooked 

 him, than any other fish. Though there be many of these fishes in 



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