SENSES OF FISHES. 13 



" with old Oliver Henley, now with God, a noted fisher 

 both for trout and salmon : and have observed, that he 

 would usually take three or four worms out of his bag, 

 and put them into a little box in his pocket, where he 

 would usually let them continue half an hour or more, 

 before he would bait his hook with them. I have 

 asked him his reason, and he has replied, ' he did but 

 pick the best out to be in readiness against he baited 

 his hook the next time ; ' but he has been observed, 

 both by others and myself, to catch more fish than I, 

 or any other body that has ever gone a-fishing with 

 him could do, and especially salmons ; and I have been 

 told lately, by one of his most intimate and secret 

 friends, that the box in which he put those worms was 

 anointed with a drop, or two or three, of the oil of ivy- 

 berries, made by expression or infusion ; and told me 

 that by the worms remaining in that box an hour, or 

 a like time, they had incorporated a kind of smell that 

 was irresistibly attractive, enough to force any fish 

 within the smell of them to bite." 



The gum ivy kept in the shops being, according to 

 Best, counterfeit and good for nothing, he advises the 

 angler to procure it himself by driving several large 

 nails about Michaelmas or in spring into the thickest 

 stems of ivy, working them about till they become 

 loose, and then allowing them to remain till the gum 

 ooze out; or by slitting up the bark on the larger 

 stems of ivy with the same view, and collecting the 

 gum once a month or oftener. 



Walton gives another receipt founded upon the same 

 principle of strong odour, consisting of the stinking 



