HOW TO BAIT, AND PLAY THE BAIT. 251 



you may often be deceived ; sometimes I grant, you 

 may distinguish and be sensible of your bite, if he 

 runs, especially up the stream ; but if he goes down, 

 wards and bites slowly, you cannot assure yourself 

 whether it be a fish or a weed. If a place be free 

 from weeds, you may make a good shift with a cork ; 

 though you may be often mistaken when you lay a little 

 too deep, for the hook will draw along the bottom, 

 and appear like a bite. 



In some places, they troll without a rod, or playing 

 the bait, as I have seen them throw a line out of a boat, 

 and so let it draw after them as they row ; but that 

 must be a careless and unsafe way, for though they 

 may have bites and offers, yet it must certainly check 

 the fish so much that they will never pouch it: I can- 

 not tt-11 what art they may have at the Snap, though it 

 is very improbable to have any, as they go to work, 

 without either rod or stick. 



Besides those that are not endued with that excellent 

 gift of patience, there are some of our young pretend, 

 ers that have too much confidence, or rather too little 

 skill ; these will stand an hour or two in one place, as 

 immoveable as the trees they stand by ; they would 

 force them to bite ; and if there is not a Pike in the 

 place where they are, they do their endeavours to wait 

 till one comes. These are indefatigable craftsmen, can 

 weary the fish sooner than themselves, and are neither 

 discouraged with ill fortune nor transported with good. 

 Baiting the hook with a frog I spoke nothing of, be. 

 cause I never made that any part of my practice ; some 

 frogs are thought to be venomous, as the land-frog, or 

 that which breeds by land : it is observed by some, 

 that a Pike hath an antipathy against it; and of these 

 there are several sorts, some speckled, some greenish, 

 which are the most dangerous to touch ; these breed by 

 slime and dust of the earth, which turn to slime in 

 Winter, and in Summer to a living creature. Garden 

 gives a reason for the reigning of frogs, which proceed 

 from putrefaction, and are not supposed to be that sort 

 of frogs which engender in February or March, and 



