CHAP. V.] THE FOUKTH DAT. 171 



Piscator ! fuge, ne nocens, &c. 



Angler ! would'st tliou be guiltless 1 then forbear ; 

 For these are sacred fishes that swim here, 

 Who know their sovereign, and will lick his hand, 

 Than which none's greater in the world's command ; 

 Nay more, they've names, and when they called are, 

 Do to their several owners' call repair. 



All the further use that I shall make of this shall be, to 

 advise anglers to be patient and forbear swearing, lest they 

 be heard and catch no fish. 



And so I shall proceed, next, to tell you, it is certain, 

 that certain fields near Jjeominster, a town in Hereford- 

 shire, are observed to make the sheep that graze upon 

 them more fat, than the next, and also to bear finer wool, 

 that is to say, that that year in which they feed in such 

 a particular pasture, they shall yield finer wool than 

 they did that year before they came to feed in it ; and 

 coarser again, if they shall return to their former pasture ; 

 and, again, return to a finer wool, being fed in the fine wool 

 ground : Which, I tell you, that you may the better believe 

 that, I am certain, if I catch a trout in one meadow he shall 

 be white and faint, and very like to be lousy ; and, as cer- 

 tainly, if I catch a trout in the next meadow, he shall be- 

 strong, and red, and lusty, and much better meat. Trust 

 me, scholar ! I have caught many a trout in a particular 

 meadow, that the very shape and enamelled colour of him 

 hath been such, as hath joyed me to look on him : and I 

 have then, with much pleasure, concluded with Solomon, 

 " Everything is beautiful in its season." 1 



I should, by promise, speak next of the salmon ; but I 



1 The trout delights in small purling rivers, and brooks, with gravelly 

 bottoms and a swift stream. His haunts are an eddy, behind a stone, a log, 

 or a bank that projects forward into the river, and against which the stream 

 drives ; a shallow between two streams ; or, towards the latter end of the 

 summer, a mill-tail. His hold is usually in the deep, under the hollow of 

 a bank, or the root of a tree. He spawns about the beginning of Novem- 

 ber ; and does not recover till the beginning of March. When you fish for 

 large trout or salmon, a winch fastened to the rod, at the butt-end, will 

 be very useful : upon the rod whip a number of small rings of about an 

 eighth of an inch diameter, and, at first, about two feet distant from each 

 other, but, afterwards, diminishing gradually in their distances till you 

 come to the end. The winch should carry ten yards or more of wove hair 

 or silk line. When you have struck a fish that may endanger your tackle, 

 let the line run, and wind him up as he tires. [You will find great conveni- 



