56 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



to reveal any future events or high notions to his prophets, he 

 then carried them either to the deserts, or the sea-shore, that 

 having so separated them from amidst the press of people and 

 business, and the cares of the world, he might settle their mind 

 in a quiet repose, and there make them fit for revelation." 



And this seems also to be intimated by the Children of Israel, 

 (Psal. cxxxvii.) who having in a sad condition banished all mirth 

 and music from their pensive hearts, and having hung up their 

 then mute harps upon the willow trees growing by the rivers of 

 Babylon, sat down upon those banks, bemoaning the ruins of 

 Sion, and contemplating their own sad condition. 



And an ingenious Spaniard says, that " rivers and the 

 inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to 

 contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration." And 

 though I will not rank myself in the number of the first, yet 

 give me leave to free myself from the last, by offering to you a 

 short contemplation, first of rivers, and then of fish ; con- 

 cerning which I doubt not but to give you many observations 

 that will appear very considerable : I am sure they have appeared 

 so to me, and made many an hour pass away more pleasantly, as 

 I have sat quietly on a flowery bank by a calm river, and con- 

 templated what I shall now relate to you. 



And, first, concerning rivers; there be so many wonders 

 reported arid written of them, and of the several creatures that 

 be bred and live in them, and those by authors of so good credit, 

 that we need not to deny them an historical faith. 



As, namely, of a river in Epirus, that puts out any lighted 

 torch, and kindles any torch that was not lighted.* Some 

 waters, being drunk, cause madness, some drunkenness, and 

 some laughter to death. The river Selarus in a few hours 

 turns a rod, or wand, to stone ; and our Camden mentions the 

 like in England, and the like in Lochmere, in Ireland. J There 

 is also a river in Arabia, of which all the sheep that drink thereof 

 have their wool turned into a vermilion colour. J And one of 

 no less credit than Aristotle, tells us of a merry river, the river 

 Elusina, that dances at the noise of music ; for with music it 

 bubbles, dances, and grows sandy, and so continues till the 

 music ceases ; but then it presently returns to its wonted calm- 

 ness and clearness. And Camden tells us of a well near to 

 Kirby, in Westmoreland, that ebbs and flows several times 

 every day ; || and he tells us of a river in Surrey, (it is called 



* From evolving sulphuretted hydrogen gas J. R. 



t He means Loch Neagh, which certainly petrifies wood, but not in a few 

 hours. J. R. 



J This is certainly fabulous. J. R. 



A report, no doubt taken from some bubbling spring. J. R. 



|| There is a similar well, as I have witnessed, in the Peak of Derbyshire. 

 J. R. 



