181 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I. 



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. 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 Eraucis Bacon's 

 "Xatural 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 doubt 

 not but that fish may do so too. It is 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 ^ne, 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 : " Yulnera hederjc grandissima? inflicta 

 sudant Balsamum oleo gelato, albicantique persimile, odoris 

 vero longe suavissimi." 1 



'Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet assafoetida may 

 do the like." 



1 Translation "Slit the largest branches of an ivy tree, and it will 

 yield an oleaginous balsam, white in colour and of a pleasing odour." 

 - The <Ma foetid a bait which Walton refers to probably is this : " Take 



