THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 141 



have ever in motion. Concerning which two, I shall give you 

 this direction : that your ledger-bait is best to be a living bait, 

 though a dead one may catch, whether it be a fish or a frog : and 

 that you may make them live the longer, you may, or indeed you 

 must, take this course : 



First, for your live-bait : of fish, a roach or dace is, I think, 

 best and most tempting, and a perch is the longest lived on a hook ; 

 and bavins cut off his fin on his back, which may be done with- 

 out hurting him, you must take your knife, which cannot be too 

 sharp, and between the head and the fin on the back, cut or 

 make an incision, or such a scar, as you may put the arming- 

 wire of your hook into it, with as little bruising or hurting the 

 fish as art and diligence will enable you to do ; and^so carrying 

 your arming- wire along his back, unto or near the tail of your 

 fish, between the skin and the body of it, draw out that wire or 

 arming of your hook at another scar near to his tail : then tie 

 him about it with thread, but no harder than of necessity to pre- 

 vent hurting the fish ; and the better to avoid hurting the fish, 

 some have a kind of probe to open the way, for the more easy 

 entrance and passage of your wire or arming : but as for these, 

 time and a little experience will teach you better than I can by 

 words ; therefore I will for the present say no more of this, but 

 come next to give you some directions how to bait your hook 

 with a frog. 



Ven. But, good Master, did you not say even now, that some 

 frogs were venomous, and is it not dangerous to touch them ? 



Pisc. Yes ; but I will give you some rules or cautions concern- 

 ing them. And first, you are to note, that there are two kinds 

 of frogs ; that is to say, if I may so express myself, a flesh and 

 a fish-frog : by flesh-frogs, I mean frogs that breed and live on 

 the land ; and of these there be several sorts also, and of several 

 colors ; some being speckled, some greenish, some blackish, or 

 brown : the green frog, which is a small one, is by Topsell taken 

 to be venomous ; and so is the padock or frog padock, which 

 usually keeps or breeds on the land, and is very large, and bony, 

 and big, especially the she-frog of that kind ; yet these will some- 

 times come into the water, but it is not often : and the land- frogs 

 are some of them observed by him to breed by laying eggs ; and 



