THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 135 



so there be land and water snakes.* Concerning which, take 

 this observation, that the land snake breeds and hatches her 

 eggs, which become young snakes, in some old dunghill, or a 

 like hot place : but the water snake, which is not venomous, 

 and, as I have been assured by a great observer of such secrets, 

 does not hatch, but breed her young alive, which she does not 

 then forsake, but bides with them, and in case of danger will 

 take them all into her mouth and swim away from any appre- 

 hended danger, and then let them out again when she thinks all 

 danger to be passed : these be accidents that we anglers some- 

 times see, and often talk of. 



But whither am I going ? I had almost lost myself, by 

 remembering the discourse of Dubravius. I will therefore stop 

 here ; and tell you, according to my promise, how to catch the 

 Pike. 



His feeding is usually of fish or frogs; and sometimes a 

 weed of his own, called pickerel- weed, of which I told you 

 some think Pikes are bred ; for they have observed, that where 

 none have been put into ponds, yet they have there found many ; 

 and that there has been plenty of that weed in those ponds, and 

 [they think] that that weed both breeds and feeds them : but 

 whether those Pikes so bred will ever breed by generation as 

 the others do, I shall leave to the disquisitions of men of more 

 curiosity and leisure than I profess myself to have ; f and shall 

 proceed to tell you, that you may fish for a Pike, either with a 

 ledger or a walking bait ; and you are to note, that I call that a 

 ledger bait, which is fixed or made to rest in one certain place 

 when you shall be absent from it ; and I call that a walking bait, 

 which you take with you, and have ever in motion. Concern- 

 ing which two, I shall give you this direction ; that your ledger 

 bait is best to be a living bait, (though a dead one may catch,) 

 whether it be a fish or a frog : and that you may make them 

 live the longer, you may, or indeed you must take this course : 



First, for your live bait : of fish, a Roach or Dace is, I 

 think, best and most tempting, and a Perch is the longest 

 lived on a hook ; and, having cut off his fin on his back, which 

 may be done without hurting him, you must take your knife, 

 which cannot be too sharp, and betwixt the head and the fin on 

 the back cut or make an incision, or such a scar as you may 

 put the arming wire of your hook into it, with as little bruising 

 or hurting the fish as art and diligence will enable you to do ; 



* This is a gross mistake. It may as correctly be maintained that there 

 are land and water ducks, or land and air skylarks. J. R. 



t We should not infer, that because we see the house spider, for the 

 most part, in the cobweb, it was generated by the cobweb, though this 

 reasoning would be as good as the one in the text It is the same loose 

 kind of observation that ascribes the production of insects to blighting 

 winds. -J. R, 



