THE GENERAL HISTORY OF ANGLING, ETC. 15 



of a dead man at the opening of a grave and beat them into powder and 

 put of this powder in the moss wherein you keep your worms ; 

 others like the grave earth as well." To what base uses we may return ! 

 Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander to feeding 

 fish an even stranger use than "stopping a bung hole." One is 

 reminded on reading these queer recipes of the moody Prince of Denmark, 

 * ' A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of 

 the fish that hath fed of that worm." Fat from a heron's leg is also 

 recommended, and I heard quite lately an old and accomplished 

 angler assert that if this fat of the heron's leg it would require a 

 good many herons' legs to furnish an ounce of fat be incorporated with 

 bread paste, the result is glorious, the roach cannot resist the seductive 

 grease, and one has almost to engage a strong boy with a thick stick 

 to enforce their coming one at a time. Here also is an unguent whicl 

 is recommended, even so late as 1740, by John Kichardson, gent., for 

 attracting "trout in a muddy water" and gudgeons in a "clear 

 stream :" assafcetida 3dr., camphire Idr., Venice turpentine Idr., heat 

 together with some drops of the chemical oil of lavender and camomile 

 of each an equal quantity. Need I say that it has not the desired effect ? 

 Truly it may, however, be said of the angling of other generations : 



All arts, all shapes, the wily angler tries 



To cloak his fraud arid tempt his finny prize, 



Their sight, their *mell he carefully explores, 



Aud bleiids the druggists' and the chemists' stores, 



Devising still with fancy ever new 



Pastes, oils, and unguents of each scent and hue. 



The reader will observe that I have contemptuously spoken of 

 the recipes given by old writers for the preparation of baits. This 

 is justifiable, for no man in his senses could credit in these 

 later days the absurdities connected with human and feline adipose 

 or the asserted potency of oil of polypody and assafcetida. Yet 

 there is "something in it." All ancient crazes (unlike many modern 

 ones) have a grain or more of sure foundation ; they, it is true, some- 

 tunes appear like inverted pyramids, but nevertheless they rest on some- 

 thing. So also the idea of scented and coloured baits arises from an 

 exaggerated idea of the senses of fishes. We cannot now credit fish with 

 a preference for " oil of whelps " (i.e., puppies boiled in oil), but we are 

 obliged to credit the statement which old fishermen make relative to 

 the attractiveness of "oil of worms" (i.e., worms placed in a bottle 

 and covered up in a dung heap till decomposed) to eels. Next to assa- 

 fcetida the smell of this " oil " is the most offensive, but I have 

 practically tried it and tested its efficacy when smeared on the inside 

 of the ' ' eel pot ' ' or basket. Aniseed also is attractive, without question, 

 on occasions. 



