THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 79 



CHAPTER IV. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURE AND BREEDING OF THE TROUT, 

 AND HOW TO FISH FOR HIM ; AND THE MILKMAID'S SONG. 



Piscator. THE Trout is a fish highly valued, both in this 

 and foreign nations. He may be justly said, as the old poet 

 said of wine, and we English say of venison, to be a generous 

 fish : a fish that is so like the Buck that he also has his seasons ; 

 for it is observed, that he comes in and goes out of season with 

 the Stag and Buck. Gesner says, his name is of a German 

 offspring ; and says he is a fish that feeds clean and purely, in 

 the swiftest strea'ms, and on the hardest gravel ; and that he 

 may justly contend with all fresh- water fish, as the Mullet may 

 with all sea-fish, for precedency and daintiness of taste ; and 

 that being in right season, the most dainty palates have allowed 

 precedency to him. 



And, before I go farther in my discourse, let me tell you, 

 that you are to observe, that as there be some barren Does that 

 are good in summer, so there be some barren Trouts that are 

 good in winter : but there are not many that are so ; for usuaDy 

 they be in their perfection in the month of May, and decline 

 with the Buck. Now, you are to take notice, that in several 

 countries, as in Germany and in other parts, compared to ours, 

 fish do differ much in their bigness, and shape, and other ways ; 

 and so do Trouts. It is well known, that in the Lake Leman 

 (the Lake of Geneva) there are Trouts taken three cubits 

 long, as is affirmed by Gesner, a writer of good credit : and 

 Mercator says, the Trouts that are taken in the Lake of Geneva 

 are a great part of the merchandise of that famous city. And 

 you are farther to know, that there be certain waters that breed 

 Trouts, remarkable both for their number and smallness. I 

 know a little brook in Kent,* that breeds them to a number 

 incredible, and you may take them twenty or forty in an hour, 

 but none greater than about the size of a Gudgeon. There are 

 also, in divers rivers, especially that relate to, or be near to the 

 sea, (as Winchester, or the Thames about Windsor,) a little 

 Trout called a Samlet, or Skegger Troutf (in both which 

 places I have caught twenty or forty at a standing,) that will 

 bite as fast and as freely as Minnows : these be by some taken 



* The Cray, if I mistake not, whirh is about eight miles from where I am 

 now writing, and is famous for small trout. J. R. 



f This appi-ars to be what is termed the Par in the north, and which, I 

 think, is a peculiar species. J. K. 



