THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 249 



the young brood of wasps or bees, if you dip their 

 heads in blood ; especially good for bream, if they 

 be baked or hardened in their husks in an oven, 

 after the bread is taken out of it ; or hardened on 

 a fire-shovel ; and so also is the thick blood of 

 sheep, being half dried on a trencher, that so you 

 may cut into such pieces as may best fit the size 

 of your hook ; and a little salt keeps it from grow- 

 ing black, and makes it not the worse but better : 

 this is taken to be a choice bait if rightly ordered. 

 There be several oils of a strong smell that I 

 have been told of, and to be excellent to tempt 

 fish to bite, of which I could say much. But I 

 remember I once carried a small bottle from Sir 

 George Hastings to Sir Henry Wotton (they were 

 both chemical men) as a great present : it was 

 sent and received and used with great confidence ; 

 and yet, upon inquiry, I found it did not answer 

 the expectation of Sir Henry, which, with the 

 help of this and other circumstances, makes me 

 have but little belief in such things as many men 

 talk of. Not but that I think fishes both smell 

 and hear, as I have expressed in my former dis- 

 course ; but there is a mysterious knack, which, 

 though it be much easier than the philosopher's 

 stone, yet is not attainable by common capacities, 

 or else lies locked up in the brain or breast of 

 some chemical man, that, like the Rosicrucians, will 

 not yet reveal it. But let me nevertheless tell you 

 that camphor put with moss into your worm-bag 

 with your worms, makes them, if many anglers be 



