THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



a yard long, by the moving of which, with his natural bait, 

 when he lies close and unseen in the mud, he draws other fish 

 so close to him that he can suck them into his mouth, and so 

 devours and digests them." 



And, scholar, do not wr>""1pf nt ^lis ^ nr ^ p ffi<1f s f hf^ credit of 

 the relater, you are to note, many of these, and fishes that are 

 at the nke and more unusual shapes T are very often taken on the 

 niouths of our sea-riveTsT^ncroiithe sea-shore. And this will 

 oe no wonder to any that have travelled Egypt ; where 'tis 

 known the famous river Nilus does not only breed fishes that 

 yet want names, but by the overflowing of that river, and the 

 help of the sun's heat on the fat slime which that river leaves 

 on the banks when it falls back into its natural channel, such 

 strange fish and beasts are also bred, that no man can give a 

 name to, as Grotius, in his Sophom^ and others, have observed. 



But whither am I strayed in this discourse? I will end it by 

 telling you, that at the mouth of some of these rivers of ours 

 herrings are so plentiful, as namely, near to Yarmouth, in Norfolk, 

 and in the west country, pilchers so very plentiful, as you will 

 wonder to read what our learned Camden relates of them in his 

 Britannia (pp. 178, 186). 



Well, scholar, I will stop here, -and tell you what by reading 

 and conference I have observed concerning fish-ponds. 



CHAPTER XX. 



OF FISH-PONDS, AND HOW TO ORDER THEM. 



PlSC. Doctor Lebault, the learned Frenchman, in his large 

 discourse of Maison Rustique, gives this direction for making 

 of fish-ponds ; I shall refer you to him to read at large, but I 

 think I shall contract it, and yet make it as useful. 



He adviseth, that when you have drained the ground, and 

 made the earth firm where the head of the pond must be, that 

 you must then, in that place, drive in two or three rows of oak 



