BAITS. 29 



rather our sense of taste, for there can be no 

 doubt that fishes are attracted by scented 

 pastes and scented worms, which are some- 

 times used by anglers that employ ground- 

 baits ; and in old angling books there are usu- 

 ally receipts for attracting fish in this manner; 

 and though the absurdity of many of these 

 prescriptions is manifest, yet I do not think this 

 proves that they are entirely useless; for, upon 

 such principles, all the remedies for diseases 

 in the old pharmacopoeias would be null. 



With respect to the fly, as it usually touches 

 the stream by a very small surface, that of the 

 air-bubbles on the fringes on its legs, it can 

 scarcely affect the water so as to give it any 

 power of communicating smell. And as you 

 have seen a ripple or motion on the water is 

 necessary to deceive fishes ; and as they look 

 at the fly from below, they see distinctly only 

 the legs and body, which, when the colours are 

 like those of the natural fly, may easily de- 

 ceive them ; the wings, which are the worst 

 imitated parts of the artificial fly, seldom ap- 

 pear to them, except through the different 

 refractive power of the moving water and the 



