CHAP. I.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. $9 



of Babylon, sat down upon those banks bemoaning the ruins 

 of Si on, and contemplating their own sad condition. 



And an ingenious Spaniard says, that "rivers and the in- 

 habitants of the watery element were made for wise men to 

 contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration." And 

 though I will not rank myself in the number of the first, yet 

 give me leave to free myself from the last, by offering to you a 

 short contemplation, first of rivers and then of fish ; concern- 

 ing which I doubt not but to give you many observations that 

 will appear very considerable : I am sure they have appeared 

 so to me, and made many an hour pass away more pleasantly, 

 as I have sat quietly on a flowery bank by a calm river, and 

 contemplated what I shall now relate to you. 



And first concerning Rivers ; there be so many wonders re- 

 ported and written of them, and of the several creatures that be 

 bred and live in them, and those by authors of so good credit, 

 that we need not to deny them an historical faith. 



As namely of a river in Epirus, that puts out any lighted 

 torch, and kindles any torch that was not lighted. Some 

 waters being drank cause madness, some drunkenness, and some 

 laughter to death. The river Selarus in a few hours turns a 

 rod or wand to stone ; and our Camden mentions the like in 

 England, and the like in Lochmere in Ireland. There is also a 

 river in Arabia, of which all the sheep that drink thereof have 

 their wool turned into a vermilion color. And one of no less 

 credit than Aristotle tells us of a merry river, the river Elusina, 

 that dances at the noise of music, for with music it bubbles, 

 dances, and grows sandy, and so continues till the music ceases, 

 but then it presently returns to its wonted calmness and clear- 

 ness. And Camden tells us of a well near to Kirby in West- 

 moreland, that ebbs and flows several times every day ; and he 

 tells us of a river in Surrey, it is called Mole, that after it has 

 run several miles, being opposed by hills, finds or makes itself 

 a way under ground, and breaks out again so far off, that the 

 inhabitants thereabouts boast, as the Spaniards do of their 



