CHAP. XV.] THE FOURTH DAT. 257 



of his feeding on the ground ; and he there feasts himself 

 in sharp streams, and on the gravel. He and the barbel 

 both feed so, and do not hunt for flies at any time, as most 

 other fishes do : he is an excellent fish to enter a young 

 angler, being easy to be taken with a small red-worm, on 

 or very near to the ground. He is one of those leather- 

 mouthed fish that has his teeth in his throat, and will hardly 

 be lost from off the hook if he be once strucken. They be 

 usually scattered up and down every river in the shallows, 

 in the heat of summer ; but in autumn, when the weeds 

 begin to grow sour or rot, and the weather colder, then they 

 gather together, and get into the deeper parts of the water ; 

 and are to be fished for there, with your hook always 

 touching the ground, if you fish for him with a float, or with 

 a cork. But many will fish for the gudgeon by hand, with 

 a running-line upon the ground, without a cork, as a trout 

 is fished for, and it is an excellent way, if you have a gentle 

 rod and as gentle a hand. 1 



There is also another fish called aPope, and by some a Euife ; 

 a fish that is not known to be in some rivers ; he is much 



The Ruffe. 



like the pearch for his shape, and taken to be better than 

 the pearch, but will not grow to be bigger than a gudgeon : 



1 In fishing for gudgeons, have a rake, and every quarter of an hour 

 rake the bottom of the river, and the fish will flock thither in shoals. H. 

 Gudgeons appear to swim instinctively towards disturbed waters, and 

 are therefore generally found in mill-streams, and at the tail of sluices 

 and in gravelly scours. Raking the ground, as Sir John Hawkins recom- 

 mends, as often as the sport slackens, and baiting with a small bright red 

 worm (on one hook or more), seldom fails of success, and we have seen 



s 



