3i8 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



of the first directions given by those who use it is to chew it and 

 spit it into the water as ground bait ; and as we had an intolerable 

 aversion to chewing raw material of this kind, we never got any 

 further with it/ Now, Mr. Editor, every angler will know by this an- 

 nouncement what is meant, and that it is an unequivocal denounce- 

 ment of the uses of ox brains and ' pith ' as a bait for chub. Anglers, 

 in verity, have quite enough to refute on the score of habits scarcely 

 refined, when the impalement of worms, frogs, gentles, beetles, 

 snails, and even cockroaches, is in question ; but it is a leetle too 

 bad to add to this category of uncleanly handlings that of a process 

 hitherto confined to Otaheite. Too hot to eat these brains may 

 sometimes be; for let me tell you, in spite of the italicised 

 ' raw,' they are first boiled, and many an Italian considers them, 

 with the accompaniment of a little melted butter, as fine a dish as 

 is brought to table. I know of no work where the instructions are 

 that these brains should be masticated in a raw state : and if any 

 exist, the writer must have been wholly ignorant at the time that they 

 would be useless, for the simple reason that they could not be 

 separated by the teeth into that state of fineness of particles 

 necessary to form the most tempting ground bait — if that can be 

 called so that does not sink — that was ever offered to a chub. But 

 as some doubt does exist upon this subject, let me, for the sake of 

 decency, first remove the prejudice against this bait entering the 

 mouth of the most fastidious. I have here a recipe from my late 

 friend M. Soyer, who, it will be admitted, was not altogether an 

 unaristocratic gastronome : ' Lay the brains in lukewarm water to 

 disgorge, then carefully take off all the skin : put about a quarter of 

 a pound of butter in a saut^ pan, rub all over the bottom, cut the 

 brains in slices, lay them in the pan, and season according to liking. 

 Many prefer the brains as a dish by itself, plain boiled, and merely 

 flavoured with salt, pepper, and perhaps a slice of lemon.' Here, 

 then, we have the luncheon prepared for the chub, minus the con- 

 diments. They are not raw, as stated, but scrupulously cleaned 

 and skinned. Many a poor man gets a worse dinner, and there are 

 well-fed fishermen on the Thames — puntsmen spoiled by over in- 

 dulgence — who labour under a shrewd suspicion that, when they re- 

 commend brains, it is one word for the chub and two for themselves. 

 My only personal objection to their use is dental ; and if it be so in 

 others, they must choose their fishermen like a horse, by his teeth. 

 When Colonel S. first saw 'Nottinghani George' go through this 

 process, and witnessed the cargo of chub that was brought to punt 

 by its application, he is said to have astonished the company at dinner 



