244 ANGLING. 



Minnow-fishing for trout is a favourite pastime 

 with many anglers, and the process is one by which 

 very large fish are frequently captured. The tackle 

 used resembles that for salmon, but is lighter and 



Salmon paste. Take one pound of salmon-spawn in September or 

 October ; boil it about fifteen minutes, then beat it in a mortar until 

 sufficiently mixed, with an ounce of salt, and a quarter of an ounce 

 of saltpetre ; carefully pick out the membrane in which the spawn 

 is contained, as it is disengaged from it ; when beat to a proper con- 

 sistence, put it into gallipots, and cover it over with bladders tied 

 down close, and it will keep good for many months. 



Various oils were formerly in much repute among anglers for 

 rubbing over their baits, but as we believe their beneficial effects 

 were in a great measure imaginary, we shall not occupy our pages 

 by their repetition. A single extract from Izaak Walton will suffice. 

 " And now I shall tell you that w r hich may be called a secret : I 

 have been a-fishing with old Oliver Henley, now with God, a noted 

 fisher both for trout and salmon, and have observed that he would 

 usually take three or four worms out of his bag, and put them into a 

 little box in his pocket, where he would usually let them continue 

 half an hour or more before he would bait his hook with them. I 

 have asked him his reason, and he has replied, ( he did but pick the 

 best out, to be in readiness against he baited his hook the next time.' 

 But he has been observed, both by others and myself, to catch more 

 fish than I or any other body that has ever gone a-fishing with him 

 could do, and especially salmons ; and I have been told lately, by 

 one of his most intimate and secret friends, that the box in which 

 he put those worms was anointed with a drop, or two or three, of 

 the oil of ivy-berries made by expression or infusion ; and told, that 

 by the worms remaining in that box an hour, or a like time, they 

 had incorporated a kind of smell, that was irresistibly attractive, 

 enough to force any fish within the smell of them to bite." We 

 need scarcely remind the reader of the " Complete Angler," that 

 that admirable work is of higher value for the manner in which the 

 subject is discussed, and the beautiful accessories of pure style, 

 poetical sentiment, and picturesque illustration, than for the amount 

 of direct practical information which it conveys. The simplicity and 

 goodness of Izaak Walton's nature seem to have induced a greater 

 degree of credulity than was always consistent with an accurate 

 perception of the truth, and hence every chapter abounds with 

 statements which could not pass current in these more critical days. 

 As a useful work in relation to the mere angler, it cannot in truth 



