fat as _Hoggs_: Thus do every _Summer_, till
you sue your pond, and no River _Carp_ can surpass them.

Thus much of _Fishing_ and _Fish-Ponds_.

Of Shooting.

The Use of the Bow is of so great Antiquity, and of so important a
Consequence for a _defensive_ and _offensive Armes_, that I could not
but a little consider, how needful the true knowledge of its Use was
esteemed of Old, and how _little it is accounted_ now. It is uncertain,
as well as (almost) unknown, who was the First Inventor of the Bow; but
if we examine the _Probability_ there may be of its being derived from
the Tyranical Government of _Nimrod_, that so _Mighty Hunter before the
Lord_, we may _Conjecture_ him to be the first Inventor of the Bow: For
as he is called the _First Founder_ of a _Monarchick Government_, by
reducing and subduing a disordered People under the Government of
himself; so was he likewise esteemed a _Mighty Hunter_ in another
respect, for that he _Subdued likewise the Beasts of the Field_; as is
observed of him and his Character, by sundry Commentators on him and his
Family. So that in the whole we may suppose him to be the Inventor, or
first Finder out of the Bow, as a Weapon of an infallible Execution and
mortal Efficacy on that account. Nor can I find any mention made of the
_Bow_ thro the whole Hystory of _Genesis_ from _Nimrod_ to _Esau_, they
both being characterized with those Epithets of _Mighty and Cunning
Hunters_, _Men of the Field_; who very well understood the Use of the
Bow, as well for their _Profit_ as _Pleasure_; the last of which is
particularly hinted in the commands of _Isaac_ to _Esau_, that with his
_Quiver_ and his _Bow_, he should Hunt and take that only _Seasonable_
Dish, which might procure and entaile a _Blessing_ on him and his
Posterity. Nay, that Holy Patriarch _Jacob_ himself, in his last Will
and Testament to his Illustrious Family, bequeaths a _singular Portion_
to his beloved _Joseph_, which the _strength of his Bow_ had intitled
him to. _Gen._ 48. 22.

Nor are we to doubt in what Estimation it was held to the Reign of
_David_ King of _Israel_, who thought it the most _Necessary
Qualification_ of his Subjects, to be very well versed in the Use of the
_Bow_. The _Bow_ which was the Famous _Signal_ between his beloved
_Jonathan_ and himself, and made the private _Testimonial_ of the
undeserv'd Fury of his Maliciously & Enviously incensed _Father Saul_:
By reason of whose eminent Skill, in t