60 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I 



river Anus, that they feed divers flocks of sheep upon a bridge. 

 And lastly, for I would not tire your patience, one of no less 

 authority than Josephus, that learned Jew, tells us of a river in 

 Judaea that runs swiftly all the six days of the week, and stands 

 still and rests all their Sabbath. 



But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers, and tell you some 

 things of the monsters, or fish, call them what you will, that 

 they breed and feed in them. Pliny the philosopher says, in 

 the third chapter of his ninth book, that in the Indian Sea the 

 fish called the Balaena, or Whirlpool, is so long and broad as 

 to take up more in length and breadth than two acres of ground, 

 and of other fish of two hundred cubits long ; and that in the river 

 Ganges, there be Eels of thirty foot long. He says there, that 

 these monsters appear in that sea only when the tempestuous 

 winds oppose the torrents of waters falling from the rocks into 

 it, and so turning what lay at the bottom to be seen on the 

 water's top. And he says, that the people of Cadara, an island 

 near this place, make the timber for their houses of those fish- 

 bones. He there tells us, that there are sometimes a thousand 

 of these great Eels found wrapped or interwoven together. He 

 tells us there, that it appears that Dolphins love music, and will 

 come, when called for, by some men or boys, that know and 

 use to feed them, and that they can swim as swift as an arrow 

 can be shot out of a bow ; and much of this is spoken concern- 

 ing the Dolphin, and other fish, as may be found also in 

 learned Dr. Casaubon's discourse "Of Credulity and Incredu- 

 lity," printed by him about the year 1670. 



I know we islanders are averse to the belief of these wonders; 

 but there be so -many strange creatures to be now seen, many 

 collected by John Tradescant, and others added by my friend 

 Elias Ashmole, Esq., who now keeps them carefully and me- 

 thodically at his house near to Lambeth near London, as may 

 get some belief of some of the other wonders I mentioned. I 

 will tell you some of the wonders that you may now see, and 

 not till then believe, unless you think fit. 



