2/2 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



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 pro- 

 verb, " 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 childbed. 



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 part of the commendations which some philoso- 

 phical brains have bestowed upon the fresh- water pearch ; 

 yet they commend the sea-pearch, which is known by having 

 but one fin on his back, of which, they say, we English see 

 but a few, to be a much better fish. 



The pearch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been 

 credibly informed, to be almost two foot long; for an honest 

 informer told me such a one was not long since taken by 

 Sir Abraham Williams, a gentleman of worth, and a brother 

 of the angle, that yet lives, and I wish he may : this was 

 deep-bodied fish, and doubtless durst have devoured a pik( 

 of half his own length ; for I have told you he is a bole 

 fish, such a one as, but for extreme hunger, the pike will not 

 devour; for to affright the pike and save himself, the pearcl 

 will set up his fins, much like as a turkey-cock will some- 

 times set up his tail. 



But, my scholar, the pearch is not only valiant to defen< 

 himself, but he is, as I said, a bold-biting fish, yet he will 



