FISHING 57 



right hand, and transfer them to a jam-pot or 

 other suitable receptacle. 



I have never denied that the threading of a 

 worm upon a steel hook entails a certain amount 

 of sujffering, and to the sensitive mind such a 

 process is inevitably fraught with unpleasant- 

 ness. Mr. H. Cholmondeley-Pennell, perhaps 

 the greatest human authority on bait, has done 

 excellent work in the Badminton Library by 

 deploring that unnecessary multiplication of 

 hooks — a feature of the well-known '' Stewart " 

 tackle — which, as he justly remarks, is apt to 

 " disfigure the worm and detract from its natural 

 appearance." No truer word was ever spoken. 

 It requires but a slight effort of the imagination 

 to understand that the too lavish use of hooks is 

 the cause of many a domestic tragedy in the 

 worm world. One can easily picture the return 

 to her fireside of some punctured mother worm, 

 so disfigured by the treatment she has received at 

 human hands that her husband turns away from 

 her in disgust, to transfer his affections elsewhere, 

 while her children fly shrieking from the lawn. 



When required for immediate use, worms 

 should be kept in a tin box lined with moss, 

 in which a little brick-dust has been carefully 

 sprinkled. This undoubtedly helps them to 

 retain that ruddy, sunburnt complexion which 

 mil commend them to the consideration of the 



