ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 39 



Their manner of breeding is very uncertaine and 

 unknowne, but undoubtedly they are bred in the 

 brackish or sea water : and at the first full Moone 

 in Maie they begin to come into all great rivers, 

 and out of great rivers into lesser rivers, and 

 out of those lesser rivers into all small brookes, 

 rils and running waters, continually against the 

 streame all the beginning of Sommer : as like- 

 wise with the first floud that commeth about 

 Michelmas, they covet to go downe the streame, and 

 will not stay untill they come into the deepe and 

 brackish waters, if they be not taken or letted by 

 the way. I know that some hold the opinion 

 that they breede of the Maie deaw, 1 for proofe 

 whereof they say if you cut up two turfes of grasse 

 in a May morning, and clap the grassie sides of those 

 turfes together, and so lay them in a river, you shall 

 next day find small young Eeles betweene the sayd 

 turfes : and so you shall indeede for the most part do. 

 Howbeit not therefore they do breede of the deaw. 

 . . . The reason is, at that time of yeare that river 

 being full of such young Eeles, they will creepe into 

 every thing that is sweete and pleasant. 



In a marginal note the author states : 



Eeles come from the brackish and sea water. In 

 the river of Severne I have scene great store of these 

 small Eele frie taken going against the streame and 

 so do most other fish in the spring time. Fish covet 

 to go downe the streame in the latter end of the 

 Sommer. 



The following list of baits shows that the author 

 was an angler as well as a pisciculturist : 



I have found that the Carpe, Breame, and 

 1 See YarrelFs British~Fishes> 2nd ed., vol. ii., p. 387. 



