80 THE STORY OF FISH LIFE. 



Isaac Walton relates an experience of his anent 

 a fellow- fisherman, "I have been a-fishing with 

 old Oliver Henley, now with God, a noted 

 fisher both for trout and salmon, and have 

 observed that he would usually take three or 

 four worms out of his bag, and put them into a 

 little box in his pocket, where he would 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, 

 especially salmons. And I have been told lately, 

 by one of his most intimate and secret friends, 

 that the box in which he put these 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 . . . they had incorporated a kind 

 of smell that is irresistibly attractive enough to 

 force any fish within the smell of them to bite." 

 Some two hundred and forty years after this was 

 written, actual and very careful experiments 

 were made by Mr Gregg Wilson in the Plymouth 

 Marine Biological Station, with a view to gaining 

 more definite information in this very interesting 

 and important matter. The more interesting of 

 his results may be briefly and profitably trans- 

 scribed here. He says: "So far as I could 

 determine, fish that are not very hungry habitually 

 smell food before taking it. The pollack seems 



