180 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



this, though it be most excellent meat, yet it wants scales, 

 and is, as I told you, therefore an abomination to the Jews. 



But, scholar, there is a fish that they in Lancashire boast 

 very much of, called a CHAR ; taken there (and I think there 

 only), in a mere called Winander Mere : a mere, says Camden, 

 that is the largest in this nation, being ten miles in length, 

 and (some say) as smooth in the bottom as if it were paved 

 with polished marble. This fish never exceeds fifteen or 

 sixteen inches in length ; and is spotted like a trout : and 

 has scarce a bone, but on the back. But this, though I do 

 not know whether it make the angler sport, yet I would have 

 you take notice of it, because it is a rarity, and of so high 

 esteem with persons of great note. 



]STor would I have you ignorant of a rare fish called a 

 GUINIAD ; of which I shall tell you what Camden and others 

 speak. The river Dee (which runs by Chester), springs in 

 Merionethshire ; and, as it runs toward Chester, it runs 

 through Pemble-Mere, which is a large water : and it is 

 observed, that though the river Dee abounds with salmon, 

 and Pemble-Mere with the guiniad, yet there is never any 

 salmon caught in the mere, nor a guiniad in the river. And 

 now my next observation shall be of the Barbel. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



OBSERVATIONS OP THE BARBEL ; AND BISECTIONS EOW TO FISH 

 FOR HIM. 



Lf ourtfi Bap.] 



Pise. The Barbel is so called, says Gesner, by reason of 

 his barb or wattles at his mouth, which are under his nose or 

 chaps. He is one of those leather-mouthed fishes, that I told 

 you of, that does very seldom break his hold if he be once 



hardly worth the mention. The same may be said of smelts, which, in the 

 Thames, and other great rivers, are caught with a bit of any small fish, but 

 chiefly of their own species. In the month of August, about the year 1720, 

 such vast quantities of smelts came up the Thames, that women, and even 

 children became anglers for them ; and as I have been told by persons who 

 well remembered it, in one day, between London-bridge and Greenwich, not 

 fewer than two thousand persons were thus employed. H. 



