FOUND IN NORFOLK. 53 



side yarmouth in the mixed water [are gen crossed out] 

 make a dish very dayntie & I think scarce to bee 

 bettered in England, butt the Blea[k] [Fol. 36] the 

 chubbe the barbell [I haue not obserued in these riuers 

 crossed out] to bee found in diuers other Riuers in 

 England I haue not obserued in these. As also fewer 

 mennowes then in many other riuers. 



The Trutta or trout the Gammarus or crawfish [no 

 crossed out] butt scarce in our riuers butt frequently 

 taken in the Bure or north riuer & in the seuerall 

 branches thereof. & very remarkable large crawfishes 

 to bee found in the riuer wch runnes by castleaker & 

 nerford. 



The Aspredo perca minor^* and probably the cernua 

 of Cardan comonly called a Ruffe in great plentie in 



quite deserve Browne's high encomium. It is well known here that this 

 fish shows no aversion of a certain admixture of salt and fresh water, and 

 Mr. Lubbock ("Fauna of Norfolk") says, "the point in Norfolk rivers 

 where the largest are taken with most certainty is where water begins 

 to turn brackish from the influence of the ocean ; " in autumn the very 

 finest are taken by angling with a shrimp, a favourite bait in the lower 

 parts of the Yare and V?aveney. In such localities a small shrimp 

 (Pandalus varius, Leach) abounds, and it is to this favourite food that 

 Mr. Lubbock attributes the excellence of these Perch. Roud is the 

 local name of the Rudd (Leuciscus erythropthalmus). The River Nar is 

 still perhaps the best Trout stream in the county, and the Crawfish is found 

 in most of the rivers but not abundantly. 



^ Merrett calls the Ruff Cernua fluviatilis, and mentions its abundance 

 in the River Yare at Norwich, which he (no doubt inadvertently) assigns to 

 the County of " Essex " ; from this locality Caius obtained the specimen, a 

 drawing of which he sent to Gesner under the name of Aspredo. Camden 

 assigns this fish also to Norwich, and Spencer, in his " Marriage of the 

 Thames and Med way,'' writes of the Ruff:— 



" Next Cometh Yar, soft washing Norwich walls, 

 And with him bringeth to their festival 

 Fish whose like none else can show, 

 The which men Rutins call." 



This county seems to have been assigned an exclusive proprietorship in the 

 Ruff, to which, as Browne rightly points out, it had no just claim. 



