CHAP. VI.] THE FOURTH DAY. 121 



And some think that he feeds on water-thyme, and smells of it at 

 his first taking out of the water ; and they may think so with as 

 good reason as we do that our Smelts smell like violets at their 

 being first caught, which I think is a truth. Aldrovandus says, 

 the Salmon, the Grayling, and Trout, and all fish that live in 

 clear and sharp streams, are made by their mother Nature of such 

 exact shape and pleasant colours purposely to invite us to a joy 

 and contentedness in feasting with her. Whether this is a truth 

 or not, is not my purpose to dispute : but 'tis certain, all that 

 write of the Umber declare him to be very medicinable. And 

 Gesner says, that the fat of an Umber or Grayling, being set, 

 with a little honey, a day or two in the sun, in a little glass, is 

 very excellent against redness or swarthiness, or anything that 

 breeds in the eyes. Salvian * takes him to be called Umber from 

 his swift swimming, or gliding out of sight more like a shadow or 

 a ghost than a fish. Much more might be said both of his smell 

 and taste : but I shall only tell you that St Ambrose, the glorious 

 Bishop of Milan, who lived when the Church kept fasting-days, 

 calls him the flower-fish, or flower of fishes ; and that he was so 

 far in love with him, that he would not let him pass without the 

 honour of a long discourse ; but I must ; and pass on to tell you 

 how to take this dainty fish. 



First note, that he grows not to the bigness of a Trout ; fol 

 the biggest of them do not usually exceed eighteen inches.t He 

 lives in such rivers as the Trout does ; and is usually taken with 

 the same baits as the Trout is, and after the same manner ; for 

 he will bite both at the minnow, or worm, or fly, though he bites 

 not often at the minnow, and is very gamesome at the fly ; and 

 much simpler, and therefore bolder than a Trout ; for he will rise 

 twenty times at a fly, if you miss him, and yet rise again. He 

 has been taken with a fly made of the red feathers of a paroquet, 

 a strange outlandish bird ; and he will rise at a fly not unlike a 

 gnat, or a small moth, or, indeed, at most flies that are not too 

 big. He is a fish that lurks close all Winter, but is very pleasant 

 and jolly after mid-April, and in May, and in the hot months. 

 He is of a very fine shape, his flesh is white, his teeth, those little 

 ones that he has, are in his throat, yet he has so tender a mouth, 

 that he is oftener lost after an angler has hooked him than any 



* Hippolito Salviani, an Italian physician of the sixteenth century: he wrote a 

 treatise De PisciiniSj cutti eorjtmjl^iris, and died at Rome, 1572, aged 59. — H. 



f Pennant notices as a rarity, a Grayling taken near Ludlow, above half a yard long, 

 and weighing four pounds six ounces. Anotlier was killed near Shrewsbury which 

 weighed full five pounds. 



