CHAP. IV.] THE THIRD DAY. 109 



six months in the year, but, about Michaelmas, leave us 

 for a hotter climate 1 yet some of them that have been left 

 behind their fellows, have been found, many thousands at 

 a time, in hollow trees, or clay caves, where they have been 

 observed to live, and sleep out the whole winter, without 

 meat. 2 And so Albertus 3 observes, that there is one kind of 

 frog 4 that hath her mouth naturally shut up about the end 

 of August, and that she lives so all the winter ; and though 

 it be strange to some, yet it is known to too many among us 

 to be doubted. 5 



And so much for these Pordidge trouts, which never 

 afford an angler sport ; but either live their time of being in 

 the fresh water, by their meat formerly gotten in the sea, 

 (not unlike the swallow or frog) or by the virtue of the 

 fresh water only, 6 or, as the birds of paradise and the chame- 

 leon are said to live, by the sun and the air. 7 



There is also in Northumberland a trout called a bull- 

 trout, 8 of a much greater length and bigness than any in 

 these southern parts. And there are, in many rivers that 



1 See Topsel on Frogs. 



2 View Sir Francis Bacon, " Exper.," 899. [Walton.] Physically 

 impossible. R. 



3 Albertus Magnus, a German Dominican, and a very learned man : 

 Urban IV. compelled him to accept of the bishopric of Ratisbon. He wrote 

 a treatise " On the Secrets of Nature," and twenty other volumes in folio ; 

 and died at Cologne, 1280. H. 



4 See Topsel on Frogs. Edward Topsel was the author of a " History of 

 Four-footed Beasts and Serpents " collected out of the works of Gresner, 

 and other authors folio, Lond. 1658. .In this history he describes the several 

 kinds of frogs ; and, in page 721 thereof, cites from Albertus the fact here 

 related. See an account of him in 'Walton's Life,' (ante, p. 8). H. 



5 See Chap. VIII. W. The mouth of the frog is no doubt closed 

 during its winter torpidity. RENXIB. 



6 This Trout affords excellent sport ; it is a greedy feeder, and the 

 stomach, when examined, is full of insects, particularly the sandhopper. ED. 



7 That the chameleon lives by the air alone is a vulgar error, it being well 

 known that its food is flies and other insects. See Sir Thomas Brown's 

 "Enquiry into Vulgar and Common Errors," book iii. chap. 21. About 

 the year 1780, a living chameleon was to be seen in the garden of the 

 Company of Apothecaries at Chelsea. H. To which may be added, that 

 what is said about fish and grasshoppers having sown-up mouths, or none 

 at all, is equally fabulous. ED. 



8 These are also found in the Yorkshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire 

 rivers, where they come from the sea the beginning of May. [They are also 

 found in the south of Scotland, and especially in Dumfrieshire. ] They lie 



