246 FISHING GOSSIP. 



a few curious illustrations of the jumbling-up of fact 

 and fiction in matters piscine or piscatorial, which 

 may not perhaps be altogether uninteresting, or at 

 least unamusing, as examples of the sort of science 

 current within the last couple of centuries. A 

 belief, for instance, in igneous waters, underground 

 streams, haunted wells and fountains, and generally 

 in preposterous or non-existing eccentricities of river 

 administration, appears to have been very common. 

 Here are a few authentic specimens of quasi 



"WATERS BEWITCHED." 



G. Nelson, Eector of Oakley, in Suffolk, in an old 

 work by Dr. Grew, says, " I would not embellish this 

 book with fiction, because I intend to serve the Truth. 

 And yet in the next page we find : 



" The water of the river Thames is very remark- 

 able, being tempered with some kind of acid, which 

 it licks from its banks. . . . The mariners are 

 forced to hold their noses when they drink it, yet it 

 does not make them sick ; and after a third or 

 fourth fermentation, it becomes very sweet ; whereas 

 other water is irrecoverable, and dangerous after its 

 stinking. This water in eight months' time acquires 

 so spirituous and active a quality, that upon opening 

 a cask and holding a candle near the bung its steams 

 have taken fire like the spirits of wine, and some- 

 times endangered the ship." 



