The Fifth Day 185 



And to take the Roach and Dace, a good bait is 

 the young brood of wasps or bees, if you dip their 

 heads in blood ; especially good for Bream, if they 

 be baked, or hardened in their husks in an oven, 

 after the bread is taken out of it ; or hardened on a 

 fire-shovel : and so also is the thick blood of sheep, 

 being half dried on a trencher, that so you may cut 

 into such pieces as may best fit the size of your 

 hook ; and a little salt keeps it from growing black, 

 and makes it not the worse, but better: this is 

 taken to be a choice bait, if rightly ordered. 



There be several oils of a strong smell that I 

 have been told of, and to be excellent to tempt 

 fish to bite, of which I could say much. But I 

 remember I once carried a small bottle from Sir 

 George Hastings to Sir Henry Wotton, they were 

 both chemical men, as a great present : it was sent, 

 and received, and us'd, with great confidence ; and 

 yet, upon inquiry, I found it did not answer the 

 expectation of Sir Henry ; which, with the help of 

 this and other circumstances, makes me have little 

 belief in such things as many men talk of. Not 

 but that I think that fishes both smell and hear, as 

 I have exprest in my former discourse : but there 

 is a mysterious knack, which though it be much 

 easier than the philosopher's stone, yet is not 

 attainable by common capacities, or else lies locked 

 up in the brain or breast of some chemical man, 

 that, like the Rosicrucians, will not yet reveal it. 

 But let me nevertheless tell you, that camphire, put 

 with moss into your worm-bag with your worms, 

 makes them, if many anglers be not very much 

 mistaken, a tempting bait, and the angler more 

 fortunate. But I stepped by chance into this dis- 

 course of oils, and fishes smelling ; and though there 

 might be more said, both of it and of baits for 

 Roach and Dace and other float-fish, yet I will for- 



