THE COMPLETE ANGLER. l8l 



some have a kind of probe to open the way for 

 the more easy entrance and passage of your wire 

 or arming ; but as for these, time and a little ex- 

 perience will teach you better than I can by 

 words. Therefore I will for the present say no 

 more of this, but come next to give you some 

 directions how to bait your hook with a frog. 



Ven. But, good master, did you not say even 

 now, that some frogs were venomous, and is it not 

 dangerous to touch them? 



Pise. Yes, but I will give you some rules or 

 cautions concerning them. And first you are to 

 note that there are two kinds of frogs ; that is to 

 say, if I may so express myself, a flesh and a fish 

 frog. By flesh- frogs I mean frogs that breed and 

 live on the land ; and of these there be several 

 sorts also, and of several colors, some being 

 speckled, some greenish, some blackish or brown. 

 The green frog, which is a small one, is by Topsell 

 taken to be venomous ; and so is the padock or 

 frog-padock, which usually keeps or breeds on the 

 land, and is very large and bony and big, espe- 

 cially the she-frog of .that kind. Yet these will 

 sometimes come into the water, but it is not often. 

 And the land frogs are some of them observed 

 by him to breed by laying eggs ; and others to 

 breed of the slime and dust of the earth, and that 

 in winter they turn to slime again, and that the 

 next summer that very slime returns to be a living 

 creature. This is the opinion of Pliny. And 

 Cardanus undertakes to give a reason for the rain- 



