280 THE COMPLETE ANGLEE. [PART I. 



upon inquiry, I found it did not answer the expectation of 

 Sir Henry ; which, with the help of this and other circum- 

 stances, makes me have but little belief in such things as 

 many men talk of. Not but that I think fishes both smell 

 and hear, as I have expressed in my former discourse : but 

 there is a mysterious knack, which, though it be much 

 easier than the philosopher's stone, yet is not attainable by 

 common capacities, or else lies locked up in the brain or 

 breast of some chemical man, that, like the Bosicrucians, 1 

 will not yet reveal it. But let me, nevertheless, tell you 

 that camphor, put with moss into your worm-bag with your 

 w r orms, makes them, if many anglers be not very much mis- 

 taken, a tempting bait, and the angler more fortunate. But 

 I stepped by chance into this discourse of oils, and fishes 

 smelling ; and though there might be more said, both of it 

 and of baits for roach and dace, and other float-fish, yet I 

 will forbear it at this time, 2 and tell you in the next place 



1 The title of the Rosycrucians, or the Brothers of the Rosy-Cross, was 

 first assumed by a sect of Hermetic Philosophers in Germany, about the 

 commencement of the fourteenth century. They professed to have a 

 knowledge of all the Occult Sciences, as the making of gold, the prolonga- 

 tion of human life, the restoration of yoitth, from which they were also 

 called Immortales, and the formation of the Philosopher's Stone ; but all 

 these secrets they were bound by a solemn oath to reveal only to the 

 members of their own fraternity, and it is to this custom, in particular, that 

 Walton alludes. Their founder was a German gentleman, named Christian 

 Crux, who had travelled to Palestine, where, falling sick, he was cured by 

 Arabian physicians, who, he asserted, revealed to him their mysterious 

 arts. He died in 1484 ; and the name of his society was composed of the 

 word Ros, Dew, and his own name, Crux a Cross, the old chemical 

 character for light. See " Tennernann's Manual of the History of Philo- 

 sophy." (Bohn). 1854. 



2 Roach delight in gravelly or sandy bottoms : their haunts, especially 

 as winter approaches, are clear deep and still waters ; at other times, they 

 lie in and near the weeds, and under the shade of boughs. They spawn 

 about the latter end of May, when they are scabby and iinwholesome : but 

 they are again in order, in about three weeks. The largest are taken after 

 Michaelmas ; and their prime season is in February or March. The Baits 

 for Roach, not already mentioned, are : cad-bait and oak-worms, for the 

 spring ; in May, ant's eggs; and paste, made of the crumbs of a new roll, 

 both white, and tinged with red, which is done by putting vermilion into 

 the water wherewith you moisten it ; this paste will do for the winter 

 also. The largest Roach in this kingdom are taken in the Thames: but 

 Roach of any size are hardly to be come at without a boat. 



THE HAUNTS OF DACE are : gravelly, sandy, and clayey bottoms; deep 



