THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 159 



are many. 1- Paste made of brown bread and honey, gentles, 

 or the brood of wasps that be young, and then not unlike gen- 

 ties, and should be hardened in an oven, or dried on a tile before 

 the fire, to make them tough ; or there is at the root of docks or 

 flags, or rushes in watery places, a worm not unlike a maggot, 

 at which tench will bite freely. Or he will bite at a grasshop- 

 per with his legs nipped off, in June and July, or at several flies 

 under wate;, which may be found on flags that grow near to the 

 water-side. I doubt not but that there be many other baits that 

 are f^ood : but I will turn them all into this most excellent one, 

 either for a carp or bream, in any river or mere ;* it was given to 

 me by a most honest and excellent angler ; and hoping you will 

 prove both, I will impart it to you. 



1. Let your bait be as big a red- worm as you can find, with- 

 out a knot ; get a pint or quart of them in an evening in garden 

 walks, or chalky commons, after a shower of rain ; and put them 

 with clean moss, well washed and picked, and the water squeezed 

 out of the moss as dry as you can, into an earthen pot or pipkin 

 set dry, and change the moss fresh every three or four days for 

 three weeks or a month together ; then your bait will be at the 

 best, for it will be clear and lively. 



2. Having thus prepared your baits, get your tackling ready 

 and fitted for this sport. Take three long angling-rods, and as 

 many and more silk or silk and hair lines, and as many large 

 swan or goose-quill floats. Then take a piece of lead made after 

 this manner, 



and fasten them to the low ends of your lines. Then fasten 



poisson que les pecheurs appellent le chef des brernes, et que plusieurs 

 naturalistes regardent comme un metis d'une breme et d'un rotengle." 

 Pesson-Maissonneure, Manuel de Picheur. Block tells the same story, 

 and says that the chef is distinguished by a redder color, though he docs 

 not think him a mongrel, because he is seen in ponds " oii Ton n'a jam\is 

 vu de rotengle." — Am. Ed. 



* Mere, lake, a corruption of jner, mare, an inland sea. — Am. Ed. 



