158 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Gesner reports, that in Poland a certain and a great num- 

 ber of large breams were put into a pond, which in the next 

 following winter were frozen up into one entire ice, and not 

 one drop of water remaining, nor one of these fish to be 

 found, though they were diligently searched for ; and yet the 

 next spring, when the ice was thawed, and the weather warm, 

 and fresh water got into the pond, he affirms they all appeared 

 again. This Gesner affirms ; and I quote my author because 

 it seems almost as incredible as the resurrection to an atheist : 

 but it may win something, in point of believing it, to him that 

 considers the breeding or renovation of the silk-worm, and of 

 many insects. And that is considerable, which Sir Francis 

 Bacon observes in his " History of Life and Death/' fol. 20, 

 that there be some herbs that die and spring every year, and 

 some endure longer. 



But though some do not, yet the French esteem this fish 

 highly, and to that end have this proverb, " He that hath 

 breams in his pond is able to bid his friend welcome." And 

 it is noted, that the best part of a bream is his belly and 

 head.* 



Some say that breams and roaches will mix their eggs and 

 melt together, and so there is in many places a bastard breed 

 of breams, that never come to be either large or good, but 

 very numerous. 



* The barbel and chub are bad edibles ; but not so bad as the bream, which 

 I consider the most tasteless of all river-fish. The largest bream are caught in 

 the Oundle and the Ouse, in Huntingdonshire. ED. 



