270 FISHING GOSSIP. 



trial, they may select those for their daily use which on 

 experience they shall find to he best. One or two of those that 

 are most highly commended, would, I own, be more pleasing 

 to me were they more simple, and less superstitiously com- 

 pounded. In particular this by Monsieur Charras, apothe- 

 cary royal to the late French king, Lewis the Fourteenth : 

 * Take of man's fat and cat's fat, of each half an ounce ; 

 mummy, finely powdered, three drams ; cummin-seed, finely 

 powdered, one dram ; distilled oil of aniseed and spike, of 

 each six drops ; civet, two grains ; and camphire, four grains : 

 make an ointment according to art. When you angle with 

 this, anoint eight inches of the line next the hook. Keep it 

 in a pewter box, made something taper ; and, when you use 

 it never angle with less than two or three hairs next the hook ; 

 because if you angle with one hair it will not stick so well to 

 the line.' . . . 



" Gum ivy (not the oil of ivy) is of a yellowish-red colour, 

 and of a strong scent and sharp taste. To get it true, drive 

 several large nails into thick ivy stalks, and having wriggled 

 them till they become very loose, let them remain, and a gum 

 will issue out of the hole. This gum is excellent for the 

 angler's use : perhaps nothing more so under the form of an 

 unguent." 



Then we meet with other writers who have each 

 in turn some favourite nostrum : now it is oil of 

 olive, now chymical oil of lavender or camomile : 



" But for a trout in a muddy water, and for gudgeons in a 

 clean stream, the best ungent is compounded, viz. 



" Take assafcetida, 3 drams ; camphire, 1 dram ; Venice 

 turpentine, 1 dram ; beat altogether with some drops of the 

 chymical oils of lavender and camomile, of each an equal 

 quantity." 



