CHAP. IV.] THE THIBD DAY. Ill 



other fishes do ; as Sir Francis Bacon hath observed in his 

 " History of Life and Death." 



And next you are to take notice, that he is not like the 

 crocodile, which if he lives never so long, yet always thrives 

 till his death ; but it is not so with the trout, for after he is 

 come to his full growth, he declines in his body, and keeps 

 his bigness, or thrives only in his head, till his death. 1 And 

 you are to know, that he will, about (especially before) the 

 time of his spawning, get, almost miraculously, through weirs 

 and flood-gates, against the streams ; even through such high 

 and swift places as is almost incredible. Next, that the 

 trout usually spawns about October or November, but in 

 some rivers a little sooner or later, which is the more 

 observable, because most other fish spawn in the spring or 

 summer, when the sun hath warmed both the earth and 

 water, and made it fit for generation. And you are to note, 

 that he continues many months out of season : for it may 

 be observed of the trout, that he is like the buck, or the ox, 

 that will not be fat in many months, though he go in the very 

 same pastures that horses do, which will be fat in one month. 

 And so you may observe, that most other fishes recover 

 strength, and grow sooner fat and in season than the trout 

 doth. 



And next you are to note, that till the sun gets to such a 

 height as to warm the earth and the water, the trout is sick 

 and lean, and lousy, and unwholesome; for you shall, in 

 winter, find him to have a big head, and, then, to be lank, 

 and thin and lean, at which time many of them have sticking 

 on them sugs, or trout-lice ; which is a kind of a worm, in 

 shape like a clove, or pin with a big head, and sticks close to 

 him and sucks his moisture ; those, I think, the trout breeds 

 himself, and never thrives till he free himself from them, 

 which is when warm weather comes ; and then, as he grows 

 stronger, he gets from the dead still water into the sharp 

 streams and the gravel, and there rubs off these worms or 

 lice ; and then, as he grows stronger, so he gets him into 

 swifter and swifter streams, and there lies at the watch for 

 any fly or minnow that comes near to him ; and he especially 



1 This opinion has arisen from mistaking a large trout, after spawning, 

 when his head looks large, because his body is lean, for an old trout 

 declining through age. Rennie. 



