12 FOOD OF FISHES. 



nostrils perform a function similar to taste ; but to me 

 this supposition seems gratuitous and improbable, and 

 it tends strongly to disprove the opinion, that expe- 

 rienced anglers find certain strongly smelling sub- 

 stances in the form of pastes excellent for enticing fish 

 to their baits. 



Paste-Baits, and Smelling Ointments. 



Walton, for example, recommends for chub in 

 August, " a yellow paste made of the strongest cheese, 

 with a little butter and saffron ; " " for the winter 

 months a paste of cheese and turpentine ; " and says 

 of tench, te he inclines very much to any paste with 

 which tar is mixed." The scent of* ivy is reported to 

 have a peculiar power in attracting fish, and hence the 

 angling books abound with receipts for its various uses. 

 The oldest I have met with is in a rare volume enti- 

 tled " The Secrets of Angling," by J. D. [Davors,] 

 published in 1613, and runs thus: 



To bless thy bait and make the fish to bite, 

 Lo ! here's a means, if thou canst hit it right, 

 Take gum of life, well beat and laid to soak, 

 In oil well drawn of that [ivy] that kills the oak. 

 Fish where thou wilt, thou shalt have sport thy fill; 

 When others fail thou shalt be sure to kill. 



Walton gives another in .Latin, imparted to him by 

 an excellent angler, who told him it was too good to be 

 told but in a learned language, lest it should be made 

 too common, gum ivy being, as he alleged, t( supremely 

 sweet to any fish." Walton, however, had not tried this, 

 in which he pretends to have "no great faith," though 

 he mentions a circumstance that strongly disproves 

 .his own opinion. "I have been a-fishing," he says, 



