n8 The Complete Angler 



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 ex- 

 pression or infusion ; and told, 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. This I heard not long since from 

 a friend, but have not tried it ; yet I grant it prob- 

 able, and refer my reader to Sir Francis Bacon's 

 Natziral History ', where he proves fishes may hear, 

 and, doubtless, can more probably smell : and I am 

 certain Gesner says, the Otter can smell in the 

 water ; and I know not but that fish may do so too. 

 'Tis left for a lover of angling, or any that desires 

 to improve that art, to try this conclusion. 



I shall also impart two other experiments, but 

 not tried by myself, which I will deliver in the same 

 words that they were given me by an excellent 

 angler 'and a very friend, in writing: he told me 

 the latter was too good to be told, but in a learned 

 language, lest it should be made common. 



"Take the stinking oil drawn out of polypody of 

 the oak by a retort, mixed with turpentine and hive- 

 honey, and anoint your bait therewith, and it will 

 doubtless draw the fish to it." The other is this : 

 " Vulnera hederae grandissimae inflicta sudant bal- 

 samum oleo gelato, albicantique persimile, odoris 

 ver6 longe suavissimi". "Tis supremely sweet to 

 any fish, and yet assa fcetida may do the like." 



