I/O THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



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 the 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 that 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 te 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 doubt not but that fish may do so 

 too. It is 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 ex- 

 cellent 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. 



"Take the stinking oil drawn out of polypody 

 of the oak by a retort, mixed with turpentine and 



