CHAP. III.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 3$ 



more concerning Chub -fishing. You are to note that in March 

 and April he is usually taken with worms ; in May, June, and 

 July he will bite at any fly, or at cherries, or at beetles with 

 their legs and wings cut off, or at any kind of snail, or at the 

 black bee that breeds in clay- walls ; and he never refuses a 

 grasshopper on the top of a swift stream, nor, at the bottom, 

 the young humble-bee that breeds in long grass, and is ordi- 

 narily found by the mower of it. In August, and in the cooler 

 months, a yellow paste, made of the strongest cheese, and 

 pounded in a mortar with a little butter and saffron, so much 

 of it as being beaten small will turn it to a lemon color. And 

 some make a paste for the winter months, at which time the 

 Chub is accounted best, for then it is observed that the forked 

 bones are lost or turned into a kind of gristle, especially if he 

 be baked, of cheese and turpentine. He will bite also at a 

 Minnow or Penk, as a Trout will ; of which I shall tell you 

 more hereafter, and of divers other baits. But take this for a 

 rule, that in hot weather he is to be fished for towards the mid- 

 water, or near the top ; and in colder weather nearer the bot- 

 tom. And if you fish for him on the top with a beetle or any 

 fly, then be sure to let your line be very long, and to keep out 

 of sight. And having told you that his spawn is excellent 

 meat, and that the head of a large Cheven, the throat being 

 well washed, is the best part of him, I will say no more of this 

 fish at the present, but wish you may catch the next you fish 

 for. 



But lest you may judge me too nice in urging to have the 

 Chub dressed so presently after he is taken, I will commend to 

 your consideration how curious former times have been in the 

 like kind. 



You shall read in Seneca his " Natural Questions," Lib. iii. 

 cap. 17, that the ancients were so curious in the newness of 

 their fish, that that seemed not new enough that was not put 

 alive into the guest's hand ; and he says that to that end they did 

 usually keep them living in glass bottles in their dining-rooms ; 



