246 THE COMPLETE ANGLEE. [PART I. 



fresh rivers ; as, namely, the lamprel, the lamprey, and the 

 lamperne ; as also of the mighty conger, taken often in 

 Severn about Gloucester : and might also tell in what high 

 esteem many of them are for the curiosity of their taste. 

 But these are not so proper to be talked of by me, because 

 they make us anglers no sport, therefore I will let them 

 alone as the Jews do, 1 to whom they are forbidden by 

 their law. 



The Flounder. 



And, scholar, there is also a flounder, a sea-fish, which 

 will wander very far into fresh rivers, and there lose himself, 

 and dwell, and thrive to a hand's breadth, and almost twice 

 so long; a fish without scales, and most excellent meat: 

 and a fish that affords much sport to the angler, with any 



from each other ; fasten one end to the flags, or on the shore, and throw 

 the lead out, and let the line lie some time. And in this way you may 

 probably take a pike. 



The river Kennet in Berkshire, the Stour in Dorsetshire, Irk in Lanca- 

 shire, and Ankham in Lincolnshire, are famed for producing excellent eels, 

 the latter to so great a degree, as to give rise to the following proverbial 

 rhyme : 



Ankham eel, and Witham Pike, 



In all England is none sike. 



But it is said, there are no eels superior in goodness to those taken in the 

 head of the New River near Islington ; and I myself have seen eels caught 

 there, with a rod and line, of a very large size. 



Eels, contrary to all other fish, never swim up, but always down the 

 stream. H. [This is a mistake, as any one living on the banks of the 

 Thames must know. Eels ascend the river on their return from the sea 

 in the spring, when the eel-bucks or eel-pots are turned down stream, 

 and the contrary way, towards the sea, in the autumn. ED.] 



1 We are indebted to Leeuwenhoeck for the discovery of scales on eels, so 

 that Jews may now eat them as legitimate food. When the skin of an eel 

 is perfectly dry, the scales are more observable. ED. 



