as much claret wine as will only cover him; and season your claret well with salt, cloves, and mace, and the rinds of oranges and lemons. That done, cover your pot and set it on a quick fire till it be sufficiently boiled. Then take out the Carp; and lay it, with the broth, into the dish; and pour upon it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, melted, and beaten with half-adozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some of the herbs shred: garnish your dish with lemons, and so serve it up. And much good do you !-Dr T. PISCATOR, stately fish. CHAP. X. THE Bream being, at a full growth, is a large and He will breed both in rivers and ponds:* but loves best to live in ponds, and where, if he likes the On the Bream. water and air, he will grow not only to be very large, but as fat as a hog. He is by Gesner taken to be more pleasant, or sweet, than wholesome. This fish is long in growing; but breeds exceedingly in a water that pleases him; yea, in many ponds so fast, as to overstore them, and starve the other fish.3 He is very broad, with a forked tail, and his scales set in excellent order: he hath large eyes, and a narrow sucking mouth; he hath two sets of teeth, and a lozenge-like bone, a bone to help his grinding. The melter is observed to have two large melts; and the female, two large bags of eggs or spawn. Gesner reports, that in Poland a certain and a great number of large Breams were put into a pond, which in the next following winter were frozen up into one entire ice, and not one drop of water remaining, nor one of these fish to be found, though they were diligently searched for; and yet the next spring, when the ice was thawed, and the weather warm, and fresh water got into the pond, he affirms they all appeared again. This Gesner affirms; and I quote my author, because it seems almost as incred VARIATION. 3 The ensuing observations, in the text, on the Bream, and the method of fishing for him, were added in the second edition. In the first, the instructions on the subject are thus briefly given: "The baits good for to catch the Bream are many; as, namely, young wasps and a paste made of brown bread and honey, or gentles, or especially a worm that is not much unlike a maggot which you will find at the roots of docks or of flags, or of rushes that grow in the water, or watery places, and a grasshopper having his legs nipt off, or a fly that is in June and July to be found amongst the green reed growing by the water-side, those are said to be excellent baits. I doubt not but there be many others, that both the Bream and the Carp also would bite at: but these, time and experience will teach you how to find out. And so having according to my promise given you these short observations concerning the Bream, I shall also give you some observations concerning the Tench, and those also very briefly." The Bream is a native of many parts of Europe, inhabiting the larger kind of lakes, still rivers, &c., and is sometimes seen even in the Caspian Sea. See Shaw's Zoology, vol. v. part i. p. 196.-E. ible as the resurrection to an atheist : but it may win something, in point of believing it, to him that considers the breeding or renovation of the silkworm, and of many insects. And that is considerable, which Sir Francis Bacon observes in his "History of Life and Death," fol. 20, that there be some herbs that die and spring every year, and some endure longer. But though some do not, yet the French esteem this fish highly; and to that end have this proverb, "He that hath Breams in his pond, is able to bid his friend welcome ;" and it is noted, that the best part of a Bream is his belly and head.* Some say that Breams and Roaches will mix their eggs and melt together; and so there is in many places a bastard breed of Breams, that never come to be either large or good, but very numerous. The baits good to catch this Bream are many. First, paste made of brown bread and honey; gentles; or the brood of wasps that be young, and then not unlike gentles, and should be hardened in an oven, or dried on a tile before the fire to make them tough. Or, there is at the root of docks, or flags, or rushes, in watery places, a worm not unlike a maggot, at which Tench† will bite freely. Or he will bite at a grasshopper with his legs nipt off, in June and July; or at several flies, under water, which may be found on flags that grow near to the water-side. I doubt not but that there be many other baits that are good; but I will turn them all into this most excellent one, either for a Carp or Bream, in any river or mere it was given to me by a most honest and excellent angler; and hoping you will prove both, I will impart it to you. 4 VARIATION.] by a most excellent angler, as good.—2d edit. The Bream seems formerly to have been a favourite fish in England. Sir William Dugdale has preserved a curious instance of the great price, at least in the interior parts of the kingdom, which it bore as long ago as the 7th year of Henry V., when it was rated at 20d. And he informs us, in the 32d Hen. VI. 1454, "A Pye of four of them, in the expences of two men employed for three days in taking them, in baking them, in flour, in spices, and conveying it from Sutton in Warwickshire, to the Earl of Warwick, at Mydlam in the North Country, cost xvjs. ijd.”—Antiquities of Warwickshire, p. 668.-E. In the Pithy, Profitable, and Pleasant Workes of Maister Skelton, Poet Laureat to Henry VIII., the following occurs: "In the middes a cundite, that curiously was cast Crown of Laurell, p. 30, ed. 1736. Sic in the second, third, fourth, and fifth editions; but it is evident from the con text that Piscator is speaking of Bream. 1. Let your bait be as big a red worm as you can find, without a knot get a pint or quart of them in an evening, in gardenwalks, or chalky commons, after a shower of rain; and put them with clean moss well washed and picked, and the water squeezed out of the moss as dry as you can, into an earthen pot or pipkin set dry; and change the moss fresh every three or four days, for three weeks or a month together; then your bait will be at the best, for it will be clear and lively. 2. Having thus prepared your baits, get your tackling ready and fitted for this sport. Take three long angling-rods; and as many and more silk, or silk and hair, lines; and as many large swan or goose-quill floats. Then take a piece of lead made after this manner, and fasten them to the low ends of your lines: then fasten your link-hook also to the lead; and let there be about a foot or ten inches between the lead and the hook: but be sure the lead be heavy enough to sink the float or quill, a little under the water; and not the quill to bear up the lead, for the lead must lie on the ground. Note that your link next the hook may be smaller than the rest of your line, if you dare adventure, for fear of taking the Pike or Perch, who will assuredly visit your hooks, till they be taken out, as I will show you afterwards, before either Carp or Bream will come near to bite. Note also that when the worm is well baited, it will crawl up and down as far as the lead will give leave, which much enticeth the fish to bite without suspicion. 3. Having thus prepared your baits, and fitted your tackling, repair to the river, where you have seen them swim in skulls or shoals, in the summer-time, in a hot afternoon, about three or four of the clock; and watch their going forth of their deep holes, and returning, which you may well discern, for they return about four of the clock, most of them seeking food at the bottom, yet one or two will lie on the top of the water, rolling and tumbling themselves, whilst the rest are under him at the bottom; and so you shall perceive him to keep sentinel: then mark where he plays most and stays longest, which commonly is in the broadest and deepest place of the river; and there, or near thereabouts, at a clear bottom and a convenient landing-place, take one of your angles ready fitted as aforesaid, and sound the bottom, which should be about eight or ten feet deep; two yards from the bank is best. Then consider with yourself, whether that water will rise or fall by the next morning, by reason of any water-mills near; and, according to your discretion, take the depth of the |