CURIOSITIES OF ANGLING LITERATURE. 259 
skin ; then he whips away with it to sea, and returns 
to his natural length, which is equal to a large cable. 
One of them was found dead with two wild boars in 
his belly.” 
Thus much as to a few zoological curiosities of 
fish literature. Another kindred subject upon which 
the inventive faculties of anglers and naturalists have 
delighted to exhaust themselves in theories, possible 
and impossible, is that of— 
OILS AND ScENTED Baits, 
and their attractive influences upon the piscine 
appetite. This vexata questio has been a prolific 
source of controversy and gross exaggeration on the 
part of angling authors in times past ; and even now 
the web of fact and fiction which they have inge- 
niously woven can hardly be considered as fairly dis- 
entangled. 
The question is—Have fish the sense of smell, and 
if so, to what extent? It is conceded that almost all 
animals have this power, more or less, and that in 
some the gift takes the characteristics of the mar- 
vellous; and until it is proved to the contrary it 
would certainly seem, according to all the accepted 
laws of logic, that creatures with nostrils should be 
admitted into the category of smellers. We might, 
indeed, thus easily settle the question, and say, in 
