130 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



CHAPTER XII. 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE PEARCH ; DIRECTIONS HOW TO 

 FISH FOR HIM. 



PiSC. 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 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 

 p&arch 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 medicin- 

 able 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 of which, 

 they say, we English see but a few to be a much better fish. 



The pearch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been 

 credibly informed, to be almost two feet long ; for an honest 

 informer told me such a one was not long since taken by Sir 



