CHAP. VII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 211 



" 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-fisbing 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 ex- 

 pression or infusion ; and, told, that by the worms re- 

 maining in that box an hour, or a like time, they had 

 incorporated a kind of smell that was irresistibly at- 

 tractive, 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 Natural 

 History r , where he proves fishes may hear ; and, doubt- 

 less, can more probably smell : And I am certain Ges- 

 ner says, the Otter can smell in the water ; and I know 

 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 excellent 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. 



<c Take the stinking oil drawn out of polypody of 

 <c the oak by a retort, mixt with turpentine and hive- 

 '* honey ; and anoint your bait therewith, and it will 

 " doubtless draw the fish to it." 



The other is this : " Vulnera hederce grandissimce 

 ** inflict a sudant Balsamum oleo gelato, albicantique 

 a persimile, odoris uero longe suavissimi." 



" 'Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet assafce- 

 < c tida may do the like *." 



* There is extant, though I have never been able to get a sight of it, 

 a book intitled, the Secrets of Angling by J. D. ; at the end of which, is the 

 following mystical recipe of " R. R." who possibly may be the " R. Roe'* 

 meti$ned in the Preface, [to Walton .] 

 N 4 



