190 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



they may think so with as good reason as we do that our 

 smelts smell like violets at their first being caught, which 

 I think is a truth. 1 Aldrovandus says, the salmon, the 

 grayling, and trout, and all fish that live in clear and sharp 

 streams, are made by their mother Nature of such exact 

 shape and pleasant colours purposely to invite us to a joy 

 and contentedness in feasting with her. Whether this is a 

 truth or not it is not my purpose to dispute ; but 't is certain, 

 all that write of the umber declare him to be very medicin- 

 able. And Gesner says that the fat of an umber or gray- 

 ling, being set, with a little honey, a day or two in the sun, 

 in a little glass, is very excellent against redness, or swarthi- 

 ness, 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 honour 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 there- 

 fore 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 



