OBSERVATIONS OF THE SALMON 



usually let them continue half an hour or more, before he would 

 bait his hook with them ; I have asked him his reason, and he 

 has replied, * He did but pick 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 Polypody 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 hederae grandissimae inflicta 

 sudant Balsamum oleo gelato, albicantique persimile, odoris vero 

 longe suavissimi.' 



'Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet Assafcetida 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, 

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