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There is also in Kent, near to Canterbury, a Trout called there
a
Fordidge Trout, a Trout that bears the name of the town where it
is
usually caught, that is accounted the rarest of fish; many of them
near
the bigness of a Salmon, but known by their different colour; and
in
their best season they cut very white: and none of these have been
known to be caught with an angle, unless it were one that was caught
by Sir George Hastings, an excellent angler, and now with God: and
he
hath told me, he thought that Trout bit not for hunger but wantonness;
and it is the rather to be believed, because both he, then, and
many
others before him, have been curious to search into their bellies,
what
the food was by which they lived; and have found out nothing by
which
they might satisfy their curiosity.
Concerning which you are to take notice, that it is reported
by good
authors, that grasshoppers and some fish have no mouths, but are
nourished and take breath by the porousness of their gills, man
knows
not how: and this may be believed, if we consider that when the
raven
hath hatched her eggs, she takes no further care, but leaves her
young
ones to the care of the God of nature, who is said, in the Psalms,
"to
feed the young ravens that call upon him ". And they be kept
alive and
fed by a dew; or worms that breed in their nests; or some other
ways
that we mortals know not. And this may be believed of the Fordidge
Trout, which, as it is said of the stork, that he knows his season,
so he
knows his times, I think almost his day of coming into that river
out of
the sea; where he lives, and, it is like, feeds, nine months of
the year,
and fasts three in the river of Fordidge. And you are to note,
that those
townsmen are very punctual in observing the time of beginning
to fish
for them; and boast much, that their river affords a Trout that
exceeds
all others. And just so does Sussex boast of several fish; as,
namely, a
Shelsey Cockle, a Chichester Lobster, an Arundel Mullet, and an
Amerly Trout.
And, now, for some confirmation of the Fordidge Trout: you are
to
know that this Trout is thought to eat nothing in the fresh water;
and it
may be the better believed, because it is well known, that swallows,
and
bats, and wagtails, which are called half-year birds, and not
seen to fly
in England for six months in the year, but about Michaelmas leave
us
for a hotter climate, yet some of them that have been left behind
their
fellows, have been found, many thousands at a time, in hollow
trees, or
clay caves, where they have been observed to live, and sleep out
the
whole winter, without meat. And so Albertus observes, That there
is
one kind of frog that hath her mouth naturally shut up about the
end of
August, and that she lives so all the winter: and though it be
strange to
some, yet it is known to too many among us to be doubted.
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