THE FOURTH DAY. 



CHAP. XII. Observations of the PEARCH, and Directions how to 



Jlshfor him. 



PlSCATOR. 



THE Pearch is a very good and a very bold-biting fish. He 

 is one of the fishes of prey that, like the Pike and Trout, 

 carries his teeth in his mouth, which is very large; and he 

 dare venture to kill and devour several other kinds of fish. 

 He has a hooked, or hog-back, which is armed with sharp and 

 stiff bristles, and all his skin armed or covered over with thick, 

 dry, hard scales ; and hath, which few other fish have, two fins 

 on his back. He is so bold that he will invade one of his own 

 kind, which the Pike will not do so willingly ; and you may 

 therefore easily believe him to be a bold biter. 



The Pearch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldrovandus ; 

 and especially the least are there esteemed a dainty dish. And 

 Gesner prefers the Pearch and Pike above the Trout, or any 

 fresh-water fish : he says the Germans have this proverb, 

 ' ' More wholesome than a Pearch of Rhine ' ' : and he says the 

 River-Pearch is so wholesome, that physicians allow him to be 

 eaten by wounded men, or by men in fevers, or by women in 

 child-bed. 



He spawns but once a year, and is by physicians held very 

 nutritive ; yet, by many, to be hard of digestion. They 

 abound more in the river Po and in England, says Rondeletius, 

 than other parts, and have in their brain a stone, which is, in 

 foreign parts, sold by apothecaries, being there noted to be 

 very medicinable against the stone in the reins. These be a 



