THE GE>iERAL HISTORY OF ANGLING, ETC. 13 



linen and woollen bags for all sorts of baits, but let me forewarn you 

 not to have a pannier that is heavy, for it can never be light enough." 

 Don't forget, he says, to carry a landing net, and also hooks to cut 

 away the reeds, &c. At this time all the multitudinous carrying 

 referred to can be dispensed with, and the latest invention I hear of is 

 a hat which will carry all necessaries. This will be rendered water- 

 proof by a macintosh covering, and all the angler's "tools and 

 baytes " will therefore be upon his own head. 



Some extraordinary compounds have been from time to time used as 

 bait. Perhaps this is not to be wondered at. The fact that fish 

 possessed the sense of smell or taste in a refined degree was known 

 to the early anglers, and in the days when men were eagerly 

 seeking for the philosopher's stone, and endeavouring to transmute 

 the baser metals into gold, alchemical preparations might easily have 

 been supposed by such philosophers capable of potently influencing the 

 piscine mind to its destruction. Whether euch preparations are 

 really of use I shall examine further on ; in the meantime a few of 

 these magical prescriptions may be referred to in detail. 



The practice of using drugs in fishing is respectably ancient. Oppian 

 speaks of myrrh dissolved in wine lees. The passage has thus been 

 translated : 



A paste in luscious wine the captor steeps, 

 Mixed with the balmy tears that Myrrha weeps ; 

 Around the trap diffusive fragrance rolls, 

 And calls with certain charms the finny shoals ; 

 They crowd the arch, and soon each joyful swain 

 Finds nor his labour nor his care in vain. 



He also further refers to some kind of JEsculapian nostrum which the 

 fishermen turned to account by impregnating their nets with it. 

 Unguents and pastes were also increased in efficacy by the 

 admixture of various chemicals. Pliny records the aromatic odour of 

 aristolochias, and speaks of its similar use. He also refers to a 

 vegetable growth called popularly the " earth's poison," and says it 

 was successfully used by the Campanian fishermen. " I have seen 

 them use the plant," he says, " incorporating it with lime, and throwing 

 detached pellets into the sea, one of which was no sooner swallowed 

 than the fish, immediately turning over, floated up dead. But the most 

 interesting of these poisons is unquestionably prepared from the 

 cyclamen or sow bread, two species of which possess the property of 

 drugging fish in a remarkable degree, the C. hedercefolium and the 0. 

 NeapoUtanum. The lazzaroni, from whom we first learnt the qualities 

 of this plant, stated that they were in the habit of mixing it with 

 other ingredients in a paste, called the lateragua, which is either then 

 thrown in lumps from a boat, or enclosed in a bag and thrust, by means 



