[The next paragraph on folio 33 verso is evidently added subsequently.]
Another elegant sort that is often found cast up by shoare in great numbers about ye bignesse of a button cleere & welted & may bee called fibula marina crystallina.
hirudines marini or sea Leaches.[91]
[91] It is difficult to determine the species of marine Annelids referred to by Browne; the Sea Leech is probably Pontobdella lævis. The "large wormes" digged for bait, mentioned more than once, are Lug-worms, Arenicola piscatorum; the Vermes in tubulis testacei may be tube-worms of the genus Terrebella, or a species of Serpula. Tethya or "Sea dugge" (not "Sea dogs," as Wilkin has it) might very well apply to Ascidia or one of the allied genera. Simple Ascidians, generally known as Sea-squirts, are common littoral forms; the animals figured by Rondeletius under the heading "De Tethyis" (p. 127) are simple Ascidians. The vesicaria marina, or "fanago," might well refer to the egg capsules of the common Whelk (Buccinum undatum), which are very commonly found in masses on the shore. In his sixth [letter to Merrett], Browne mentions two kinds of "fanago," the first which I take to be the egg capsules of the Whelk, resembling the "husk of peas;" the smaller that of "barley when the flower [awn?] is mouldered away," may possibly be the egg capsules of Purpura lapillus, or of some species of Natica, which bear a fanciful resemblance to grains of barley. See also [Merrett's second letter] in [Appendix A.], in which he describes the Vesicaria found on oyster-shells as resembling flowers of Hyacinthus botryoides, which is not a bad description of the form of the egg capsules of P. lapillus.
vermes marini very large wormes digged a yarde deepe out of the sands at the ebbe for bayt. tis known where they are to bee found by a litle flat ouer them on ye surface of ye sand. as also vermes in tubulis testacei. Also Tethya or sea dugges some whereof resemble fritters [and crossed out] the vesicaria marina also & [[see Note 91]] fanago sometimes very large conceaued to proceed from some testaceous animals. & particularly [Fol. 35] from the purpura butt [in crossed out] ours more probably from other testaceous wee hauing not met with any large purpura upon this coast.
[A blank space.]
Many riuer fishes also and animals. Salmon[92] no com̄on fish in our riuers though many are taken in the owse. in the Bure or north riuer, in ye waueney or south riuer, in ye [yare or crossed out] norwich riuer butt seldome and in the winter butt 4 yeares ago 15 were taken at Trowes mill [ab crossed out] in Xtmas. whose mouths were stuck with small wormes or horsleaches no bigger than fine threads some of these I kept in water 3 moneths if a few drops of blood were putt to the water they would in a litle time looke red. they sensibly grewe bigger then I first found them and were killed by an hard froast freezing the water. most of our Salmons haue a recurued peece of flesh in ye end of the lower iawe wch when they shutt there mouths deepely enters the upper. as Scaliger hath noted in some.
[92] The Salmon (Salmo salar) is at the present day very rarely found in our rivers, and those met with are, as a rule, male Kelts which have strayed into unsuspected situations after floods; a singular exception occurred on the 20th May, 1897, when one weighing 6 lbs. was taken on a fly in the river above Stoke Holy Cross Mill; this fish is preserved in the Norwich Museum. Another curious capture of which I heard (but did not see the fish) occurred on the 1st August, 1898, when a salmon, also of 6 lbs. weight, jumped into a small boat towed behind a yacht which was sailing across Breydon Water. That the salmon was at one time a recognised visitor to our rivers is evident from the following extract from the Norwich Court of Mayoralty Book under date 2 Novr. 1667: "It is ordered that the bell man give notice that if any person shall take any Salmons from the Nativity of our Lady unto St. Martin's day, or destroy any young Salmons by netts or other ingens from the midst of April until the Nativity of St. John Baptist shall be punished according to the law." The Salmon is the host of several parasites both internal and external. Fresh run Salmon are generally infested with a "Sea-louse," which quickly perishes in freshwater; not so, however, with the troublesome worm-like creature, the subject of Browne's experiments; it is known as Lernæa salmonis, and is only found on the gill-covers of spent Kelts; it is not got rid of till the fish returns to the salt water. Browne may be excused being rather sceptical as to the identity of the clean run Salmon and the spent Kelt, for no greater contrast can be imagined than that which exists between the two—the male in the "redding" season develops the unsightly hooked mandible, which so puzzled the worthy doctor, and both in colour and form is as hideous an object as can be imagined. Bécard Gallorum (not Beccard gallorus), i.e., the fish called "Bécard" by the French ([see second letter to Merrett]), refers to the use of a name still applied in France to a large Cock Salmon, and "Anchorago" is the name under which the fish was described by Scaliger, whose book I have not seen. Dr. Günther tells me that Artedi, "Ichthyologia," Pt. v., p. 23, quotes this name as a synonym of the Salmon.
The Riuers lakes & broads[93] abound in [the Lucius or added above] pikes of very large size where also is found the Brama or [breme crossed out] Breme large & well tasted the Tinca or Tench the Rubecula Roach as also Rowds and Dare or Dace perca or pearch great & small. whereof such [as] are are in Braden on this side yarmouth in the mixed water [are gen crossed out] make a dish very dayntie & I think scarce to bee bettered in England. butt the Blea[k] [Fol. 36] the chubbe the barbell [I haue not obserued in these riuers crossed out] to bee found in diues other Riuers in England I haue not obserued in these. As also fewer mennowes then in many other riuers.
[93] The freshwater fishes named in the next three paragraphs are so well known as to require few remarks. The Bream in our rivers and broads are very numerous and reach a large size, but of their esculent qualities I have had no personal experience; not so, however, with the Perch, which quite deserve Browne's high encomium. It is well known here that this fish shows no aversion of a certain admixture of salt and fresh water, and Mr. Lubbock ("Fauna of Norfolk") says, "the point in Norfolk rivers where the largest are taken with most certainty is where water begins to turn brackish from the influence of the ocean;" in autumn the very finest are taken by angling with a shrimp, a favourite bait in the lower parts of the Yare and Waveney. In such localities a small shrimp (Hippolyte varians, Leach) abounds, and it is to this favourite food that Mr. Lubbock attributes the excellence of these Perch. Roud is the local name of the Rudd (Leuciscus erythropthalmus). The River Nar is still perhaps the best Trout stream in the county, and the Crawfish is found in most of the rivers but not abundantly.