The Compleat ^Angler 



in motion, making short and quick 

 turns when he flies 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 from his whitish colour : 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; 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 colour, 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 hazel top about five or six foot 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 constantly 

 frequent one place, caught with a hook baited with a big minnow or 



201 o 



S 1R HENRYWQTTON 



