CHAP, xin.] THE FOURTH DA Y, 165 



I might here speak of many other fish, whose shape and nature 

 are much Uke the Eel, and frequent both the sea and fresh rivers ; 

 as, namely, the Lamprel, the Lamprey, and the Lamperne : * as 

 also of the mighty Conger, taken often in Severn, about Glouces- 

 ter : 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 spcrt ; there- 

 fore I will let them alone, as the Jews do, to whom they are 

 forbidden by their law. 



And, scholar, there is also a FLOUNDER,t 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 small worm, but 

 especially a little bluish worm, gotten out of marsh-ground, or 

 meadows, which should be well scoured. J But this, though it be 

 most excellent meat, yet it wants scales, and is, as I told you, 

 therefore an abomination to the Jews. 



But, scholar, there is a fish that they in Lancashire boast very 

 much of, called a Char ; taken there, and I think there only, in 

 a mere called Winander Mere ; § a mere, says Camden, that is 



* Both the Lamperne and the Lamprey are taken in ihe Wye, the former during 

 March and April, the latter in May and June. "The Lamprey, which is highly 

 esteemed as a delicacy, removes the pebbles from particular spots in the most rapid 

 stream, and thus forms a very insecure retreat, which is provincially termed a bed : in 

 these they are taken with a spear. The female is of a rounder form than the male, and 

 contains a large quantity of spawn, which is fecundated after passing from the body of 

 the fish. The Lamprey appears to possess an internal heat equal perhaps to terrestrial 

 animals."" — Duncombe's Collections towards the History, &c., of Herefordsh. p. 163. 



t The " Flounder," observes Mr Salter in the Angler's Guide, '* is only found in rivers 

 where the tide flows, or those which have connection with the sea, as it is properly a sea- 

 fish, and only leaves it to spawn. In the creeks from Blackwall to Bromley, Stratford 

 and Westham, also in the docks, and the canal at Limehouse, and in the other docks, 

 &c,, on the opposite side of the river, they are taken either with dead lines, or floated in 

 the same manner as Eels : in fact, when you angle for Eels in this part, you angle for 

 Flounders also, as they will both take the same baits, and at the same season." 



X The author of "Practical Observations on Angling in the River Trent," says : "I 

 have in the Trent known ten pounds weight of Flounders taken by two anglers in ore 

 afternoon, and a much greater quantity in the same time, by flounder-lines. I have 

 caught them by angling with lob-worms, nearly a pound weight each ; and with a 

 minnow I caught one, in 1793, '■^^*' weighed twenty-three ounces." — E- 



2 Mr Pennant, in his British Zoology, vol, iii. p. 268, observes : " There are but few 

 lakes in our island that produce this fish, and even those not in any abundance. It is 

 found in Winander Mere in Westmoreland ; in Llyn Quellyn, near the foot of Snowdon ; 

 and before the discovery of the Copper Mines, in those of Llynberris, but the mineral 

 streams have entirely destroyed the fish in the last lakes. Whether the waters in Ireland 

 afford the Char, we are uncertain, but imagine not, except it has been overlooked by 

 their writers on the Natural History of that kingdom. In Scotland it is found in Loch 

 Inch, and other neighbouring lakes, and is said to go into the Spey to spawn." Mr 

 Daniel, in the second volume of " Rural Sports," p. 222, says, " In Ireland the Char is 

 abundant in Lough Esk." — E. Char are also found in certain lakes in Merionethshire ; 

 as well as in Conningston Mere, in Lancashire. See Leigh's History of Lancashire, 

 p. 141. 



