140 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part. i. 



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 tbe 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, that by the worms remaining in that box an 

 hour, or a like time, they had incorporated a kind of 

 smell tbat 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 probable, and refer my reader to Sir 

 Francis Bacon s " Natural 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 excel- 

 lent 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. 



