CHAPTER X. OBSERVATIONS OF THE BREAM, AND 

 DIRECTIONS TO CATCH HIM 



PISCATOR 



THE Bream being at a full growth, is a large and stately 

 fish : he will breed both in rivers and ponds ; but loves 

 best to live in ponds, and where, if he likes the water 

 and air, he will grow not only to be very large, but as fat as a 

 hog : he is by Gesner taken to be more pleasant or sweet than 

 wholesome : this fish is long in growing, but breeds exceedingly 

 in a water that pleases him ; yea, in many ponds so fast, as to 

 over-store them, and starve the other fish. 



He is very broad with a forked tail, and his scales set in 

 excellent order ; he hath large eyes, and a narrow sucking 

 mouth ; he hath two sets of teeth, and a lozenge-like bone, a 

 bone to help his grinding. The Melter is observed to have two 

 large melts, and the female two large bags of eggs or spawn. 



Gesner reports, that in Poland, a certain and a great number 

 of large Breams were put into a pond, which in the next 

 following Winter were frozen up into one entire ice, and not 

 one drop of water remaining, nor one of these fish to be found, 

 though they were diligently searched for ; and yet the next 

 Spring when the ice was thawed, and the weather warm, and 

 fresh water got into the pond, he affirms they all appeared 

 again. This Gesner affirms, and I quote my author, because it 

 seems almost as incredible as the resurrection to an atheist. 

 But it may win something in point of believing it, to him that 

 considers the breeding or renovation of the silk-worm, and of 

 many insects. And that is considerable which Sir Francis 

 Bacon observes in his * History of Life and Death/ fol. 20, that 

 there be some herbs that die and spring every year, and some 

 endure longer. 



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