124 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



incorporated a kind of smell that was irresistibly attrac- 

 tive, enough to force any fish within the smell of them to 

 bite. This I heard not long since from a friend, but have 

 not tried it ; yet I grant it probable, and refer my reader 

 to Sir Francis Bacon's Natural History, where he proves 

 fishes may hear, and, doubtless, can more probably smell : 

 and I am certain Gesner says, the Otter can smell in the 

 water ; and I know not but that fish may do so too. Tis 

 left for a lover of angling, or any that desires to improve 

 that art, to try this conclusion. 



I shall also impart two other experiments, (but not tried 

 by myself,) which I will deliver in the same words that 

 they were given me, by an excellent angler and a very 

 friend, in writing : he told me the latter was too good to 

 be told, but in a learned language, lest it should be made 

 common. 



" Take the stinking oil drawn out of polypody of the 

 oak by a retort, mixed with turpentine and hive-honey, 

 and anoint your bait therewith, and it will doubtless draw 

 the fish to it." 



The other is this " Vulnera hedens grandissimce inflicta 

 sudant balsamum oleo gelato, albicantiquc pcrsimilc, odoris 

 verb longt suavissimi." 



" 'Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet assafcetida 

 may do the like." ' 



(1) There is extant, though I have never been able to get a sight of it, a book 

 entitled, the Secrets of Angling, by 3. D.; at the end of which is the following 

 mystical recipe of " R. R." who possibly may be the " R. Roe" mentioned in the 

 Preface, [to Walton.] 



To bliss thy bait, and make the fish to bite, 

 Lo! here's a meaus. if thou canst hit it right : 

 Take gum of life, well beat and laid to soak 

 Iry lu oil welt drawn from that* which kills the oak. 



Fish where thou wilt, thou shall have sport thy fill ; 

 When others fail, thou shalt be sure to kill. 



The ingenious author of the Angler's Sure Guide, published in 8vo. 1?06; in 

 the Preface, and elsewhere, ascribes this book to " that great practitioner, mas- 

 ter aud patron of angling, Dr. Donne." But I doubt as much, whether '.ie wab 



