CHAP. IX. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 149 



may not be easily got, get other flour ; and then, mix 

 these together, and put to them either sugar, or honey, 

 which I think better : and then beat these together in a 

 mortar, or sometimes work them in your hands, your 

 hands being very clean ; and then make it into a ball, or 

 two, or three, as you like best, for your use: but you must 

 work or pound it so long in the mortar, as to make it so 

 tough as to hang upon your hook without washing from 

 it, yet not too hard : or, that you may the better keep 

 it on your hook, you may knead with your paste a little, 

 and not much, white or yellowish wool. 



And if you would have this paste keep all the year, for 

 any other fish, then mix with it virgin-wax and clarified 

 honey, and work them together with your hands before 

 the fire ; then make these into balls, and they will keep 

 all the year. 



And if you fish for a Carp with gentles, then put upon 

 your hook a small piece of scarlet, the sixth of an inch 

 square, it being soaked in or anointed with oil of petre, 

 called by some, oil of the rock : and if your* gentles be put, 

 two or three days before, into a box or horn anointed with 

 honey, and so put upon your hook as to preserve them 

 to be living, you are as like to kill this crafty fish this way 

 as any other: but still, as you are fishing, chew a little 

 white or brown bread in your mouth, and cast it into the 

 pond about the place where your float swims. Other 

 baits there be ; but these, with diligence and patient 

 watchfulness, will do better than any that I have ever 

 practised or heard of. And yet I shall tell you, that the 

 crumbs of white bread and honey made into a paste is a 

 good bait for a Carp; and you know, it is more easily 

 made. Arid having said thus much of the Carp, 1 my 



(I) The haunts of the river dhrp are, in the winter months, the broadest and 

 most quiet parts of the river; but in summer, they lie in deep holes, nooks, and 



