68 



It is true, that, by great attention in keeping your 

 worms very warm, and well fed, you will be able, in a 

 certain degree, to overcome such a defect ; but it takes 

 more time and assiduity than is supposed, or than many 

 persons can bestow on that part of their apparatus. 



It is far more difficult to collect a quantity of worms in 

 hot weather, than when the ground is moistened by rain j 

 but those taken under the latter circumstance are more 

 foul, and more difficult to cleanse, than such worms as 

 you dig for to some depth. From this, however, the lob is 

 entitled to some exception ; for it is the cleanliest of all its 

 tribe, and seems to alsorb much of its nourishment from 

 the atmosphere ; whereas, the smaller kinds rarely lay 

 out, and expose themselves to the dew at nights, as the 

 lob constantly does, whenever the opportunity offers. 



SLUGS. I have, at times, been so put to for a bait, 

 that I was compelled to take any thing that offered. I 

 made a trial of slugs, which I cannot say gave a very 

 favourable result j though I could not pronounce my ex- 

 periment to have been completely unsuccessful. 



I caught a barbel, of about seven pounds weight, with 

 a white slug ; and I have put slugs on night-lines with, 

 what I may call, symptoms of success, having had seve- 

 ral taken off, though I never could find that any fish 

 had been fairly hooked on such occasions. 



I have rather a good opinion of this bait, which, as 

 well as the preceding, viz. the water-worm, has not 

 to my knowledge, been spoken f by any respectable 

 author on this subject ; and I recommend to those who 

 find other baits scarce, or who have spare rods and lines, 

 to lay one down occasionally with a white slug for the 



bait. 



