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 Francis
Bacon's Natural 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 know not but that fish may do so too.
'Tis 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 me 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: " Vulnera
hederae grandissimae inflicta sudant balsamum oleo gelato,
albicantique persimile, odoris vero longe suavissimi". "'Tis supremely
sweet to any fish, and yet assa foetida may do the like."
But in these I have no great faith; yet grant it probable; and have had
from some chymical men, namely, from Sir George Hastings and
others, an affirmation of them to be very advantageous. But no more of
these; especially not in this place.
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