262 FISHING GOSSIP. 



which in some persons means the same thing to 

 be rej ected in the question. Our forefathers certainly, 

 one and all, as anglers, gave fish the credit of possess- 

 ing the faculty to so refined a degree that even the 

 apparently infinitesimal distinction between the fat 

 of the kidney of a lamb and that of a sheep is in- 

 sisted upon for the proper admixture of certain 

 descriptions of pastes. 



We have shown that a stale bait will be rejected 

 by different descriptions of fish ; it will be as easy 

 for us to get an affirmative to the assertion that 

 mouldy bread or bran is equally repugnant to the 

 delicate palates of trout, chub, roach, etc., either used 

 as ground-bait or in the form of paste. The same 

 objection to a dead or putrid worm may be noticed in 

 reference to trout and perch. It may be urged that 

 this aversion is arrived at by a close ocular inspec- 

 tion on the fish's part. But if such be the case, we 

 should probably find fish in the morning upon the 

 hooks of night-lines, whether the worms were fresh 

 or otherwise, and this is not the case. Smell, in fact, 

 is less fallible than sight, for there are a great many 

 things that look repulsive which are good to eat, and 

 there are few things, if any, that smell objectionable 

 which the palate or stomach will tolerate. When 

 fish take to eating stale or corrupt baits, either by 

 day or night, it will be so much the worse for the 

 water-rat and the moor-hen, and that immense minor 



