134 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



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

 with thread, but no harder than of necessity, to prevent 

 hurtingthe 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 pre- 

 sent 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 were venomous ; and is it not dangerous 

 to touch them? 



Ptsc. 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 

 myself, 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 Topsel, taken to 

 be venomous ; and so is the paddock, or frog-paddock, 

 which usually keeps or breeds on the land, and is very 

 large and boney, 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 win- 

 ter they turn to slime again, and that the next summer that 

 very slime returns to be a living crea- 



* I !uSa!? k ture; ^ is is the P inion of Plin y- And * 



Cardanus 1 undertakes to give a reason for 



(1) Hieronymut Cardanua, an Italian physician, naturalist, and astrologer, 

 veil known by the many works he has published: he died at Rome, 1576. It 

 is said that he had foretold the day of his death ; and that, when it approached, 

 he suffered himself to die of hunger, to preserve his reputation. He had been 

 in England, and wrote a character of our Edward VI. 



