Pisc. The Pearch is a very good, and a very bold-biting fish. He is one of the fishes of prey that, like the pike and trout, carries his teeth in his mouth, which is very large; and he dare venture to kill and devour several other kinds of fish. He has a hooked, or hog-back, which is armed with sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin armed or covered over with thick, dry, hard scales; and hath, which few other fish have, two fins on his back. He is so bold that he will invade one of his own kind, which the pike will not do so willingly; and you may therefore easily believe him to be a bold biter.

;

The pearch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldrovandus and especially the least are there esteemed a dainty dish. And Gesner prefers the pearch and pike above the trout, or any fresh-water fish: he says, the Germans have this proverb, "more wholesome than a pearch of Rhine:" and he says the river-pearch is so wholesome, that physicians

allow him to be eaten by wounded men, or by men in fevers, or by women in child-bed.

He spawns but once a year, and is by physicians held very nutritive; yet, by many, to be hard of digestion. They abound more in the river Po and in England, says Rondeletius, than other parts, and have in their brain a stone, which is, in foreign parts, sold by apothecaries, being there noted to be very medicinable against the stone in the reins. These be a part of the commendations which some philosophical brains have bestowed upon the fresh-water pearch: yet they commend the sea-pearch, which is known by having but one fin on his back, of which they say, we English see but a few, to be a much better fish.

The pearch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been credibly informed, to be almost two foot long;1 for an honest informer told me, such a one was not long since taken by Sir Abraham Williams, a gentleman of worth, and a brother of the angle, that yet lives, and I wish he may. This was a deep-bodied fish, and doubtless durst have devoured a pike of half his own length; for I have told you, he is a bold fish, such a one as, but for extreme hunger, the pike will not devour: for to affright the pike, and save himself, the pearch will set up his fins, much like as a turkey-cock will sometimes set up his tail.

But, my scholar, the pearch is not only valiant to defend himself, but he is, as I said, a bold-biting fish, yet he will not bite at all seasons of the year; he is very abstemious: in winter, yet will bite then in the midst of the day, if it be warm and note, that all fish bite best about the midst of a warm day in winter, and he hath been observed by some, not usually, to bite till the mulberry-tree buds; that is to say, till extreme frosts be past the spring: for when the mulberry-tree blossoms, many gardeners observe their for

1 Pearch do not so much increase in length as in thickness. A pearch was taken in the canal at Brades, near Birmingham, which weighed six pounds, Col. Montagu says he saw a pearch taken in the Leven in Wiltshire, which weighed eight pounds; another was caught in Dagenham Breach of the same weight; and Pennant mentions one caught in the Serpentine river, Hyde Park, which weighed nine pounds. Some friends dined with me a few years ago, to whom I gave a pearch weighing five pounds and ten ounces, caught in the Colne at Hampton Common. It was in high season, and in flavour like a John Dory.-ED.

ward fruit to be past the danger of frosts; and some have made the like observation of the pearch's biting.

But bite the pearch will, and that very boldly; and as one has wittily observed, if there be twenty or forty in a hole, they may be, at one standing, all catched one after another; they being, as he says, like the wicked of the world, not afraid, though their fellows and companions perish in their sight. And you may observe, that they are not like the solitary pike; but love to accompany one another, and march together in troops.2 And the baits for this bold fish,

are not many: I mean he will bite as well at some, or at any of these three, as at any or all others whatsoever; a worm, a minnow, or a little frog," of which you may find many in hay-time: and of worms, the dunghill-worm, called a brandling, I take to be best, being well scoured in moss or fennel: or he will bite at a worm that lies under cowdung with a bluish head. And if you rove for a pearch with a minnow, then it is best to be alive, you sticking

The Pearch swallows the bait so voraciously that it becomes difficult to dislodge the hook; it is therefore recommended to keep about you a piece of small hollow iron (or strong reed) about six inches long: thrust this down his throat till you feel the hook (keeping your line straight, lest it catch again) and draw out your hook and the instrument, carefully, together.BROWNE.

2 Pearch are gregarious during a great portion of the year.-ED.

3 Observe to keep this bait from making to the shore, which it will be always attempting.-BROWNE.

your hook through his back-fin; or a minnow with the hook in his upper lip, and letting him swim up and down, about mid-water or a little lower, and you still keeping him to about that depth by a cork, which ought not to be a very little one: and the like way you are to fish for the pearch, with a small frog, your hook being fastened through the skin of his leg, towards the upper part of it: and lastly, I will give you but this advice, that you give the pearch time enough when he bites, for there was scarce ever any angler that has given him too much. And now I think best to rest myself, for I have almost spent my spirits with talking so long.

1

Ven. Nay, good master, one fish more, for you see it rains

1 A successful mode of catching Pearch in the Thames is as follows:Take a large clear glass bottle, such as are seen in chemists' windows, fill it with water, and put a quantity of lively minnows in it. Tie a piece of parchment over the mouth with holes pricked in it to admit air, or a piece of netting. Sink it with a cord tied round the neck in some deep hole in the river. Leave it for a night or two, and then drop a pater-noster by the side of the glass, with three hooks baited with minnows, and you will not wait long for bites. The minnows in the glass attract the pearch around in considerable numbers. (See Hoffland's "Angler," second edition.)—ED.

2 Although pearch, like trout, delight in clear swift rivers, with pebbly, gravelly bottoms, they are often found in sandy clayey soils; they love a moderately deep water; and frequent holes by the sides of, or near, little streams, and the hollows under banks.

The pearch spawns about the beginning of March: the best time of the year to angle for him is from the beginning of May till the end of June, yet you may continue to fish for him till the end of September; he is best taken in cloudy windy weather, and, as some say, from seven to ten in the forenoon, and from two to seven in the afternoon.

Other baits for the pearch are: loaches; miller's-thumbs; stickle-backs; small lob, marsh, and red worms, well scoured; horse-beans, boiled; cadbait; oak-worms; bobs and gentles:

Many of these fish are taken in the rivers about Oxford; and the author of the "Angler's Sure Guide" says, he once saw the figure of a pearch, drawn with a pencil on the door of a house near that city, which was twenty-nine inches long; and was informed it was the true dimensions of a living pearch.

The largest pearch are taken with a minnow, hooked with a good hold through the back fin, or rather through the upper lip; for the pearch, by reason of the figure of his mouth, cannot take the bait cross-wise, as the pike will. When you fish thus, use a large cork float, and lead your line about nine inches from the bottom, otherwise the minnow will come to the top of the water but in the ordinary way of fishing, let your bait hang within about six inches from the ground.-H.

still, and you know our angles are like money put to usury; they may thrive, though we sit still and do nothing but talk and enjoy one another. Come, come, the other fish, good

master.

Pisc. But, scholar, have you nothing to mix with this discourse, which now grows both tedious and tiresome? Shall I have nothing from you, that seem to have both a good memory and a cheerful spirit ?

Ven. Yes, master, I will speak you a copy of verses that were made by Doctor Donne,' and made to show the world that he could make soft and smooth verses, when he thought smoothness worth his labour: and I love them the better, because they allude to rivers, and fish, and fishing. They be these:

Come, live with me, and be my love:
And we will some new pleasures prove,
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks;
With silken lines and silver hooks.

There will the river, whisp'ring, run,
Warm'd by the eyes more than the sun;
And there, the enamel'd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray."

When thou wilt swim in that live bath-
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Most am'rously, to thee will swim,
Gladder to catch thee than thou him.

If thou to be so seen be'st loath,
By sun, or moon-thou dark'nest both;
And if mine eyes have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds;
Or treach❜rously poor fish beset,

With strangling snares, or windowy net;

Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest,
The bedded fish in banks outwrest;
Let curious traitors sleave silk flies,
To 'witch poor wand'ring fishes' eyes.2

1 See account of Dr. Donne in the "Life of Walton," ante, XIII. page 13. 2 There is a beautiful glee composed by S. Webbe from these words. -ED.