884 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
the body of any small animal. If there is any difficulty 
about this, the liver of a horse or cow answers remarkably 
well. With aknife cut some deep gashes in the substance 
of the liver or flesh, and hang it up in a shady place, but 
near the haunts of the blow-fly. Ina few days the mag- 
gots will attain a lively state of existence; but they 
require about a week to reach their full development to 
the green or soft state, and another week to reach their 
maturity, when they are large and fat, with black heads. 
The various stages are adapted for different fish. Blow- 
flies are abroad from May to the end of November, or 
even to the middle of December in mild seasons. The 
scouring of these gentles is effected by placing them for a 
few days in a mixture of bran and fine sand, slightly 
damp. By this process they are emptied of their con- 
tents, and rendered tough in their skins. When the 
object is to preserve them in this state for many days, 
they must be kept in a very cool place, such as a cellar, 
or they even should be buried in the earth. Without 
attention to this precaution they are almost sure to assume 
the chrysalis condition, in which stage they are useless as 
baits. A low temperature and exclusion from air and 
light retard this development; and by burying the carcass 
of a small animal after the larvee are a day old in a cool 
place, and confined in a box containing a mixture of dry 
cow-dung and fine earth, the gentles may be preserved in 
their larva state during the whole winter. The place 
selected should be protected from severe frosts, which 
would kill the gentles, and therefore an outhouse is well 
