296 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



husk off from it, and yet leaving a kind of inward husk 

 on the corn, or else it is marr'd ; and then cut off that 

 sprouted end, 1 mean a little of it, that the white may 

 appear; (and, so, pull off the husk on the cloven 

 side, as I directed you :) and then cut off a very 

 little of the other end, that so your hook may enter; 

 arid if your hook be small and good, you will find 

 this to be a very choice bait, either for winter or sum- 

 mer, you sometimes casting a little of it into the place 

 where your float swims. 



And to take the Roach and Dace, a good bait is : 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 it into such 

 pieces as may best fit the size of your hook ; and a little 

 salt keeps it from growing 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 1 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 enquiry, I found it 

 did not answer the expectation of Sir Henry, which, 

 with the help of this and other circumstances, makes 

 me have little belief in such things as many men talk 

 of. Not but that I think fishes both smell and hear, as 

 I have exprest in my former discourse : but there is a 

 mysterious knack, which though it be much easier 

 than the philosopher's stone, yet it 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 rne ne- 



* Vide ante, p. 203, & infra, Part II. Chap. I. note. 



The Rosicrurians were a sect of frantic enthusiasts, who sprung up in 



