CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 79 



it be soft white moss, which grows on some heaths, and 

 is hard to be found. And note, that in a very dry time^ 

 when you are put to an extremity for worms, walnut-tree 

 leaves squeezed into water, or salt in water, to make it 

 bitter or salt, and then that water poured on the ground 

 where you shall see worms are used to rise in the night, 

 will make them to appear above ground presently. 1 And 

 you may take notice, some say that camphire put into 

 your bag with your moss and worms gives them a strong 

 and so tempting a smell that the fish fare the worse and 

 you the better for it. 



And now, I shall shew you how to bait your hook with 

 a worm so as shall prevent you from much trouble, and 

 the loss of many a hook too, when you fish for a Trout 

 with a running line ; 2 that is to say, when you fish for him 

 by hand at the ground. I will direct you in this as 

 plainly as I can, that you may not mistake. 



(1) This practice was one of the common sports of school-hoys, at the time 

 Erasmus wrote his Colloquies. In that entitled Venatio, or Hunting, a com- 

 pany of them go abroad into the fields, and one named Laurence proposes fish- 

 ing; but having no worms, Bartholus objects the want of them, till Laurence 

 teUs him how he may get some. The dialogue is very natural and descriptive ; 

 and being but short, is here given. " Lnu. I should like to go a fishing ; I have 

 a neat hook. Barth. But where will you get baits? Lau. There are earth- 

 worms every where to be had. Barth. So there are, if they would but creep 

 out of the ground to you. Lau. I will make a great many thousands jump out 

 presently. Barth. How? by witchcraft? Lau. You shall see the art. Fill 

 this bucket with water: break these green shells of walnuts to pieces, and put 

 them into it ; wet the ground with the water. Now mind a little. Do you see 

 them coming out ? Barth. I see a miracle; I believe the armed men started 

 out of the earth after this manner, from the serpent's teeth that were sown." 



The above exclamation is clearly an allusion to the fable in the second book 

 of Ovid's Metamorphoses ; where Cadmus, by scattering the serpent's teeth on 

 the ground, causes armed men to spring out of it. 



(2) The running-line, so called because it runs along the ground, is made of 

 strong silk, which you may buy at the fishing-tackle shops : but I prefer hair, as 

 being less apt to tangle, and is thus fitted up. About ten inches from the end, 

 fasten a small cleft shot; then make a hole through a pistol or musket bullet, 

 according to the swiftness of the stream you fish in; and put the line through 

 it, and draw the bullet down to the shot : to the end of your line fasten an 

 Indian grass, or silkworm-gut, with a large hook. Or you may, instead of a 

 bullet, fix four large shot, at the distance of eight inches from the hook. The 

 running-line is used for Trout, Grayling, and Salmon-smelts; and is proper 

 only for streams and rapid waters. See Fart II. Chap. XI. 



