( 19 ) 



It refembles a herring, but is much broader and larger, viz. 

 a cubit long, and four inches broad : between its gills and back- 

 fin it has four round black fpots : its fcales are large, fall eafily 

 off, and are fpeckled about the edges with black. 



Thefe come from the fea into the Severn in March and April, 

 fat and full of fpawn ; but in the month after, return lean and 

 Ihotten. 



Albertus affirms, they are pleafed with the tinkling of final! 

 bells, and are allured into the nets (efpecially in the night) by ty- 

 ing them to their fides above water ; which Rondeletius alfo con- 

 firms j and, if fo, it is an argument fifhes can hear. 



They love red worms of all forts, wafps and gentles ; in 

 their guts fea-fleas have been found. 



It is a good fifh, but fo full of bones, that they are dange- 

 roufly eaten without great care. Some affert their meat is hypno- 

 tick. 



3. The Smelt. Eperlanus. Rolebe'm Germ. Spirinchus Schon- 

 feld. It is called Viola from its violet or fweet fmeli, and by us 

 therefore a Smelt ; and Eperlanus, quafi Perlatus, from its fine 

 pearly lhining luftre. 



They are frequently caught with nets in the Thames above 

 bridge, and are found, in other great rivers : they generally lie at 

 the tails of vefTels, and are angled for with a gentle at half-water ; 

 but the bait which exceeds all others, is another fmelt cut into very 

 fmall pieces, which will give you fport to admiration. 



They are a fine, light, and eafy-digefted fifh, and beft in win- 

 ter when full of fpawn. 



4. The Sturgeon. Sturio. Some call this alfo Silurus, though 

 Schwenckfield and Francius make them two. Others term it 

 Acipenfer both in Latin and Greek. EJlurgeon Gallis ; Steer 

 Germ. Sulfa Hifpan. Porcelletto Italis. 



Sturio, Julius Casfar Scaliger affirms, is a Gothick word, and 

 brought by them into other parts of Europe ; which Olaus Wor- 

 mius alfo believes, becaufe Stur or Steer fignifies Large in the Da- 

 nilh language. 



This fifh being rarely caught about London, I fhall therefore 

 give you a particular defcription of it. 



Its body long and five-fquare* with as many rows of pentangu- 

 lar bony fcales : thofe on his back rife higheft, and are between 

 12 and in number, reaching only to his fin : the upper-fide 

 line runs quite to his tail, and are about 30 ; the lower line has 

 much the fame number with thofe on his back : all thefe are white 

 in the middle, and armed with ftrong, crooked, fhort thorns. 

 His belly flat and fmooth ; his fnout broad, long, thin and point- 

 ed, with fmall eyes in proportion to his bulk, as is his mouth, 

 which is without teeth or jaws, whence it is fuppofed to live by 

 fuftion. His tail forked ; the upper part much the larger and 

 ftrongeft. 



The fifhermen in Silefia obferve a greater and a lefs ; one with 

 a blunt fnout, another with a (harp one. 



■ They breed in the fea, but come for refrefhment into large ri- 

 vers about March ; are rarely or never taken with hooks, but in 

 nets ; their nourishment being mud, excrements, and perhaps 

 flimy animals like fnails, though in their entrails only froth and 

 jelly has been yet obferved. Mr. Rogers, filhmonger, fhewed me 

 one caught in the Trent, which weighed 180 pounds, and was j\ 

 feet long. 



It is rarely eat frefh, but efteemed as a great dainty pickled, 

 which the Dutch and Germans do, cutting them into jouls and 

 rands, barrelled up with vinegar, Rhenilh wine, and fea-water, 

 and fo tran fport them to us in cags. 



Petrus Foreftus, in his 20th Book, Obfervation 12. commends 

 the bones of this fifh in arheumatifm : it is alfo faid to difpel the 

 cholick. 



Of its roes in Mufcovy are made Caviare, or Caveer, by free- 

 ing them from their firings, and warning with wine or vinegar, 

 then fpreading it on a board to dry : after this they fait it in a 

 veffel, mixing it well andmafhing it only with their hands : they 

 then put it into a ftean, or jar, with a hole at the bottom to let out 

 its moifture or pickle, covering it very clofe, and preffing it well 

 down. 



This jelly, or foapy mafs, is accounted very nourifhing and a 

 great provocative, by increafnig feed and exciting venery. 



SECT. II. Pisces Lacustres, viz. Fifh only found in Lakes 

 and Meres. 



5. iThe Weljh Chart. Chorra Cambro-Britannica. This fifh in 

 Wales they call Torgoch, which fignifies a red belly, which it has. 



Mr. Ray took this to be the fame with the next ; and fince Mr. 

 Wiiloughby, in his Accurate Hiflory of Fifhes, has given a fhort 

 defcription of this very fifh, with fome other particulars relating 

 to it, I here briefly tranflate them, that fuch who refide in thole 

 parts, may oblige the publick by clearing this doubt. 



This Torgoch is of a trout-fhape, has a brown back, with nine 

 dark broad fpaces on the fides, above the fpotted line, with as 

 many others of white between ; every where fprinkled with dark 

 yellow fpots : the firft ribs of his belly and back-tail fins are of a 

 beautiful white. 



In Carnarvonfhire it is found in the following lakes, viz. Lan- 

 berris, Llin-Umber, Feftiniog, Bettus, and in another near 

 Caffageddor in Merionethfhire, where they are fmaller and earlier 

 caught, viz. in Q&. and the reft the following months, as Nov. 

 Dec. &c. fo that the fecond lake-fifhing commences when the firft 

 leaves off. 



Ihey live in fhoals, and are taken in trammel-nets baited with 



proper food and caft into the water, where they leave them whofe 

 days and nights, for the fifh to come voluntary in ; which ir if 

 faid they will only do at thefe feafons, and not in the fu turner ; 

 though they then repair to the (hallows, where they come to breed, 

 and are frequently feen bafking on the furface of the lakes. 



6. The Red Charr. Charra Rubra. So called from the colour 

 of its belly at Winander Mere in W eftmoreland, where every win- 

 ter 1 they are plentifully taken. The fifhermen there fuppofe thefe 

 to be the female of the next ; which there is little reafon to believe, 

 this being twice as big as it, and differs alfo in having its flefh 

 partly white, with pale fpeckles on its back ; whereas the other 

 has red flelh and black fpecks. 



7. The Gelt or Gilt Charr. Gharra alba. Suppofedly ib call- 

 ed from its filvery gilt fides and belly : they are more efteemed 

 than the laft, and accounted the greater dainty. It is laid they 

 frequently float on the top of the water in fummer. 



8. The Guiniard. This is found in the lake of Bala, in Meri- 

 onethfhire in Wales ; as alfo in Hull's Water, a lake five miles 

 from Pereth in Cumberland, where they call it the Schelly. 



SECT. III. Pisces Fluviatiles L^ves. Such as live in 

 ftanding Pools and Ponds, and have no Scales. 



9. The Bullhead, Cull, or Mi!lt>?-'s-Th!:?;ib. Gobio Ca.pitatus ; 

 Bot Cremonenjtbus ; Cop vel Kap Cc.ri/itbiis ; Grobbe Germ. Gropp 

 Helvetiis ; Keuling, Kulheit, St, Kaulheupt, Saxonibus & Mi/enis ; 

 Mul alicubus ; Tholimam Trideiili.iis. 



It takes its name from the largenefs of its head, which is very 

 big, flat, and broad. 



In length it rarely exceeds fix inches; his mouth large and round, 

 with fmall fily teeth ; little eyes, with golden circles ; a yeliowifh 

 back, with three or four black rows : each gill-fin has three 

 briftly nerves, round and finely notched : about the midlt of his bel- 

 ly he has two others, fomewhat long, fmall and vvhitilh, with four 

 nerves, the firft largeft, the fecond lhorter : between his vent and 

 tail is another fin of twelve veins, and two-on his back ; that next 

 his head fhorteft, with five nerves, generally blackifh with a red 

 edge : another fin, of feventeen ribs, reaches almoft to the tail. 

 At the opening of each gill he has a crooked thorn, which turns 

 upwards : his tail round and finned, with eleven or twelve bran- 

 chy ribs. The female, when ready to fpawn, is vafcly big, and 

 carries her eggs in two black bags, refembling dugs. Frequent- 

 ly found at the bottom of pebbly rivers, where they commonly 

 hide under the ftones. Taken with cadus's and other water infects ; 

 but his principal bait is fmall red worms. It is affirmed that they 

 devour one the other. 



10. The Eel. Anguilla vulgaris. So called (ab Angu'is J?mi lit u- 

 dine) from its likenefs to a Snake. It has been a great controver- 

 fy, whether the generation of this animal is equivocal or univo- 

 cal ; and, though rarely obferved, yet the learned Doctor Charle- 

 ton in his Exercitationes proves the laft, and fays, he is fatisfied 

 they are viviparous, by feveral difTedtions he has made ; and that 

 he once took eleven young ones out of the female's belly, whofe 

 head is lefs, with a iharp fnout ; the male's bigger, with a flat 

 one. They are faid to live feven or eight years, and out of wa- 

 ter five or fix days ; but not fo long with a fouth wind as a north. 

 Their flefh is fweet, and yields great nourifhment. Its fat takes 

 away difcolourings in the fkin from blows, &c. cures baldnefs, by 

 caufing the hair to grow ; and eafes the piles : being dropped into 

 the ears* it helps old pains and deafnefs. The livers, with bay- 

 berries and myrrh, have been fuccefsfully given to caufe eafy 

 labour. 



1 1 . The Eel- Pout, ox Burbot. Muftela fluviatilis. This fifh 

 being rarely met with, but in the arches and eddies of the rivers 

 Trent and Tame, we fhall therefore give you here a particular 

 defcription of it, viz. From one to twenty inches long, and from 

 the fore-fin on the back to the belly four inches. This was of a 

 greeniih afh colour, powdered all over with fmall round yeliowifh 

 fpots ; the iris of the eye of a blueifh colour ; having two fmall 

 cirri, or wattles, iffuing out of the nofe, near the mouth, and one 

 larger out of the jaw ; and four fins near the gills ; the two fmall - 

 er placed foremoft, and the larger hindmoft ; with a ftrait line 

 running from the upper part of the gills to the fetting-on of the 

 tail ; having alfo under the belly a fin reaching from the vent al- 

 moft to the tail, with another on the back fomewhat longer, and 

 a fore-fin preceding it ; the tail roundifh, and not at all forked. 

 His bait is a well-fcoured red-worm, or, what tempts him more, 

 a gudgeon. 



12'. Elvers. A fmall fort of Eels, or Congers, found in the 

 Severn. 



13. A Stone Grig. So called in Hertfordflure. Dr. Merret 

 feparates this from the next, whofe difference we fhould therefore 

 gladly compare. 



14. The Ifis Lcunpern, becaufe found in that river near Oxford, 

 where they call it a Pride, is thus defcribed : his mouth is cut 

 neither perpendicularly downward, nor tranfverfely, but hollowed 

 as it were between two cheeks, without an under jaw, after the 

 maimer of leeches : it has on each fide feven holes, that fupply the 

 place of gills ; and on the top of its head one, not exactly betwixt 

 the eyes, which are very little, but more forward in the extremity 

 of the head, near the upper lip. It is ftreaked from the top of 

 its back down to the fmall line on its belly, which reaches from its 

 mouth to the vent. Its tail ends fpear-like, with a fmall fin near 

 it on the back. It moves by a winding impuifc of its body, with- 

 out the help of any other fins but thofe 011 the tail. 



1 j. The Loche. Cobites minor, barbatula. Thefe are frequent- 



