384 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



the body of any small animal. If there is any difficulty 

 about this, the liver of a horse or cow answers remarkably 

 well. With a knife cut some deep gashes in the substance 

 of the liver or flesh, and hang it up in a shady place, but 

 near the haunts of the blow-fly. In a few days the mag- 

 gots will attain a lively state of existence; but they 

 require about a week to reach their full development to 

 the green or soft state, and another week to reach their 

 maturity, when they are large and fat, with black heads. 

 The various stages are adapted for different fish. Blow- 

 flies are abroad from May to the end of November, or 

 even to the middle of December in mild seasons. The 

 scouring of these gentles is effected by placing them for a 

 few days in a mixture of bran and fine sand, slightly 

 damp. By this process they are emptied of their con- 

 tents, and rendered tough in their skins. When the 

 object is to preserve them in this state for many days, 

 they must be kept in a very cool place, such as a cellar, 

 or they even should be buried in the earth. Without 

 attention to this precaution they are almost sure to assume 

 the chrysalis condition, in which stage they are useless as 

 baits. A low temperature and exclusion from air and 

 light retard this development ; and by burying the carcass 

 of a small animal after the larvae are a day old in a cool 

 place, and confined in a box containing a mixture of dry 

 cow-dung and fine earth, the gentles may be preserved in 

 their larva state during the whole winter. The place 

 selected should be protected from severe frosts, which 

 would kill the gentles, and therefore an outhouse is well 



