THE PIKE. 21 7 



enable you to do ; and so carrying your arming-wire along 

 his back, unto or near the tail of your fish, between the skin 

 and the body of it, draw out that wire or arming of your 

 hook at another scar near to his tail ; then tie him about it 

 with thread, but no harder than of necessity to prevent 

 hurting the fish ; and the better to avoid hurting the fish, 

 some have a kind of probe to open the way, for the more 

 easy entrance and passage of your wire or arming : but as 

 for these, time and a little experience will teach you better 

 than I can by words ; therefore I will for the present say no 

 more of this, but come next to give you some directions how 

 to bait your hook with a frog. 



VEN. But, good master, did you not say even now, that 

 some frogs are venomous, and is it not dangerous to touch 

 them ? 



PlSC. Yes ; but I will give you some rules or cautions 

 concerning them. And first, you are to note, that there are 

 two kinds of frogs ; that is to say, if I may so express my- 

 self, a flesh and a fish-frog : by flesh-frogs, I mean frogs that 

 breed and live on the land; and of these there be several 

 sorts also, and of several colours, some being speckled, some 

 greenish, some blackish or brown : the green frog, which is 

 a small one, is by Topsell taken to be venomous, and so is 

 the padock or frog-padock, which usually keeps or breeds 

 on the land, and is very large and bony and big, especially 

 the she-frog of that kind ; yet these will sometimes come 

 into the water, but it is not often : and the land-frogs are 

 some of them observed by him to breed by laying eggs, and 

 others to breed of the slime and dust of the earth, and that 

 in winter they turn to slime again, and that the next summer 

 that very slime returns to be a living creature ; this is the 



