CHAPTER XII. OBSERVATIONS OF THE PEARCH, 

 AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM 



PISCATOR AND VENATOR 



PISCATOR. The Pearch is a very good, and a very bold- 

 biting fish : he is one of the fishes of prey, that, like the 

 Pike and Trout, carries his teeth in his mouth ; which 

 is very large, and he dare venture to kill and devour several 

 other kinds of fish : he has a hooked, or hog back, which is 

 armed with sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin armed or 

 covered over with thick, dry, hard scales, and hath, which few 

 other fish have, two fins on his back : he is so bold, that he 

 will invade one of his own kind, which the Pike will not do so 

 willingly, and, you may therefore easily believe him to be a 

 bold biter. 



The Pearch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldrovandus, 

 and especially the least are there esteemed a dainty dish. And 

 Gesner prefers the Pearch and Pike above the Trout, or any 

 fresh-water fish : he says, the Germans have this Proverb, 

 * More wholesome than a Pearch of Rhine ' : and he says the 

 River-Pearch is so wholesome, that physicians allow him to be 

 eaten by wounded men, or by men in fevers, or by women in 

 child-bed. 



He spawns but once a year, and is by physicians held very 

 nutritive ; yet by many to be hard of digestion : they abound 

 more in the River Po and in England, says Rondeletius, than 

 other parts, and have in their brain a stone which is in foreign 

 parts sold by apothecaries, being there noted to be very medi- 

 cinable against the stone in the reins : these be a part of the 

 commendations which some philosophical brains have bestowed 

 upon the fresh-water Pearch : yet they commend the Sea- 

 Pearch, which is known by having but one fin on his back, 



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