CHAP. VI.] 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



135 



the sun, in a little glass, is very excellent against redness or 

 swarthiness, or anything that breeds in the eyes. Salvian takes 

 him to be called Umber from his swift swimming, or gliding 

 out of sight more like a shadow or a ghost than a fish. Much 

 more might be said both of his smell and taste : but I shall 

 only tell you, that St. Ambrose, the glorious Bishop of Milan, 

 who lived when the Church kept fasting-days, calls him the 

 Flower-fish, or Flower of Fishes, and that he was so far in 

 love with him, that he would not let him pass without the 

 honor of a long discourse ; but I must ; and pass on to tell 

 you how to take this dainty fish. 



First, note, that he grows not to the bigness of a Trout ; for 

 the biggest of them do not -usually exceed eighteen inches. 

 He lives in such rivers as the Trout does, and is usually taken 

 with the same baits as the Trout is, and after the same manner, 

 for he will bite both at the minnow or worm, or fly : though 

 he bites not often at the minnow, and is very gamesome at the 

 fly, and much simpler, and therefore bolder than a Trout ; for 

 he will rise twenty times at a fly, if you miss him, and yet rise 

 again. He has been taken with a fly made of the red feathers 

 of a Parakita, a strange outlandish bird ; and he will rise at a 

 fly not unlike a gnat or a small moth, or, indeed, at most flies 

 that are not too big. He is a fish that lurks close all winter, 

 but is very pleasant and jolly after mid-April, and in May, and 

 in the hot months : he is of a very 'fine shape ; his flesh is 

 white, his teeth those little ones that he has are in his 



