CHAP. XII. THE FOURTH DAY. 231 



allow him to be eaten by wounded men, or by men in fevers, 

 or by women in child-bed. 



He spawns but once a year, and is by physicians held 

 very nutritive ; yet, by many, to be hard of digestion. 

 They abound more in the river Po and in England, says 

 Rondeletius, than other parts, and have in their brain a 

 stone, which is, in foreign parts, sold by apothecaries, being 

 there noted to be very medicinable against the stone in the 

 reins. These be a part of the commendations which some 

 philosophical brains have bestowed upon the fresh-water 

 pearch : yet they commend the sea-pearch, which is known 

 by having but one fin on his back, of which they say, 

 we English see but a few, to be a much better fish. 



The pearch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been 

 credibly informed, to be almost two foot long ; l for an 

 honest informer told me, such a one was not long since 

 taken by Sir Abraham Williams, a gentleman of worth, and 

 a brother of the angle, that yet lives, and I wish he may. 

 This was a deep-bodied fish, and doubtless durst have 

 devoured a pike of half his own length ; for I have told 

 you, he is a bold fish, such a one as, but for extreme hunger, 

 the pike will not devour : for to affright the pike, and save 

 himself, the pearch will set up his fins, much like as a 

 turkey-cock will sometimes set up his tail. 



But, my scholar, the pearch is not only valiant to defend 

 himself, but he is, as I said, a bold-biting fish, yet he will 

 not bite at all seasons of the year ; he is very abstemious 

 in winter, yet will bite then in the midst of the day, if it 

 be warm : and note, that all fish bite best about the midst of 

 a warm day in winter, and he hath been observed by some, 

 not usually, to bite till the mulberry-tree buds ; that is to 

 say, till extreme frosts be past the spring : for when the 

 mulberry-tree blossoms, many gardeners observe their for- 



1 Pearch do not so much increase in length as in thickness. A pearch was 

 taken in the canal at Brades, near Birmingham, which weighed six pounds. 

 Col. Montagu says he saw a pearch taken in the Leven in Wiltshire, which 

 weighed eight pounds ; another was caught in Dagenham Breach of the 

 same weight; and Pennant mentions one caught in the Serpentine river, 

 Hyde Park, which weighed nine pounds. Some friends dined with me a 

 few years ago, to whom I gave a pearch weighing five pounds and ten 

 ounces, caught in the Colne at Hampton Common. It was in high season, 

 and in flavour like a John Dory. ED. 



