MORE DIRECTIONS 



soever you fish with, are the better for being well scoured, that 

 is, long kept before they be used : and in case you have not 

 been so provident, then the way to cleanse and scour them 

 quickly, is to put them all night in water, if they be Lob-worms, 

 and then put them into your bag with fennel ; but you must 

 not put your Brandlings above an hour in water, and then put 

 them into fennel for sudden use ; but if you have time, and 

 purpose to keep them long, then they be best preserved in an 

 earthen pot with good store of moss, which is to be fresh every 

 three or four days in summer, and every week or eight days in 

 winter ; or at least the moss taken from them, and clean washed, 

 and wrung betwixt your hands till it be dry, and then put it to 

 them again. And when your worms, especially the Brandling, 

 begins to be sick and lose of his bigness, then you may recover 

 him, by putting a little milk or cream, about a spoonful in a day, 

 into them by drops on the moss ; and if there be added to the 

 cream an egg beaten and boiled in it, then it will both fatten 

 and preserve them long. And note, that when the knot, which 

 is near to the middle of the Brandling, begins to swell, then he 

 is sick, and, if he be not well looked to, is near dying. And for 

 moss you are to note, that there be divers kinds of it, which I 

 could name to you, but will only tell you, that that which is 

 likest a buck's horn is the best, except it be soft white moss, 

 which grows on some heaths, and is hard to be found. And 

 note, that in a very dry time, when you are put to an extremity 

 for worms, walnut-tree leaves squeezed into water, or salt in 

 water, to make it bitter or salt, and then that water poured on 

 the ground, where you shall see worms are used to rise in the 

 night, will make them to appear above ground presently. And 

 you may take notice, some say that camphor put into your 

 bag with your moss and worms, gives them a strong and so 

 tempting a smell, that the fish fare the worse and you the 

 better for it. 



And now I shall shew you how to bait your hook with a 

 worm, so as shall prevent you from much trouble, and the loss 

 of many a hook too, when you fish for a Trout with a running- 

 line, that is to say, when you fish for him by hand at the ground : 

 I will direct you in this as plainly as I can, that you may not 

 mistake. 

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