152 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i. 



Water-frogs, for those I think are not venomous, 

 especially the right Water-frog, which, ahout Fe- 

 bruary or March, hreeds in ditches by slime, and 

 blackish eggs in that slime : about which time of 

 breeding, the he and she-frogs are observed to use 

 divers summersaults, and to croak and make a 

 noise, which the Land-frog, or Padock-frog, never 

 does. Now of these Water-frogs, if you intend to 

 fish with a frog for a Pike, you are to choose the 

 yellowest that you can get, for that the Pike ever 

 likes best. And thus use your frog, that he may 

 continue long alive. 



Put your hook into his mouth, which you may 

 easily do from the middle of April till Augtist ; and 

 then the frog's mouth grows up, and he continues 

 so for at least six months without eating, but is 

 sustained, none, but He whose Name is Wonderful, 

 knows how : I say, put your hook, I mean the arm- 

 ing-wire, through his mouth, and out at his gills, 

 and then with a fine needle and silk sew the upper 

 part of his leg with only one stitch to the arming- 

 wire of your hook, or tie the frog's leg above the up- 

 per joint to the armed wire ; and in so doing, use him 

 as though you loved him, that is, harm him as little 

 as vou may possibly, that he may live the longer. 



And now, having given you this direction for the 

 baiting your Ledger-hook with a live fish or frog, 

 mv next must be to tell you, how your hook thus 

 baited must or may be used : and it is thus. Hav- 

 ing fastened your hook to a line, which if it be not 

 fourteen yards long, should not be less than twelve, 



