'The Compleat ^Angler 



the best out to be in readiness against he baited his hook the next 

 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-fishing 

 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 expression or infusion ; and told, 

 that by the worms remaining in that box an hour, or a like time, 

 they had incorporated a kind of smell that was irresistibly attractive, 

 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^ where he proves fishes may hear, and doubtless can more 

 probably smell : and I am certain Gesner says the otter can smell in 

 the water, and I know not but that fish may do so too ; 'tis 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. 



" Take the stinking oil drawn out of the polybody of the oak by 

 a retort, mixed with turpentine and hive-honey, and anoint your bait 

 therewith, and it will doubtless draw the fish to it." 



The other is this : " Vulnera heder<e grandissim< inflicta sudant bal- 

 samum oleo gelato^ albicantique per simile, odor is vero longe suavissimi" 



'Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet asafcetida may do the like. 



But in these things I have no great faith, yet grant it probable, 

 and have had from some chemical men (namely, from Sir George 

 Hastings and others) an affirmation of them to be very advantageous : 

 but no more of these, especially not in this place. 



I might here, before I take my leave of the salmon, tell you that 

 there is more than one sort of them ; as, namely, a tecon, and 

 another called in some places a samlet, or by some a skegger ; but 

 these and others, which I forbear to name, may be fish of another 



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