TO CATCH FISH' S. 91 



cd part. This will very much improve the ang- 

 ler's success. Probatum est. 



Take -assafcetida, three drachms, camphor, one 

 ditto, Venice turpentine s one ditto, pound alto- 

 gether in a mortar, with some drops of the che- 

 mical oil of lavender, or spike. When you angle, 

 anoint eight inches of your line with it, next 

 your hook, and it is excellent for trout in muddy 

 water, and for gudgeons in clear. Probatum 

 est. 



Assafoetida grows in Media, Lybia, and 

 Syria j it is a gummy*juice of Laser, Laserpi- 

 tium, or Sylphion, gathered from the root or 

 stalk when cut open ; choose that which is pure, 

 fine, and clammy, and smelling almost like gajriic. 

 It will keep many years, but is often adulterated 

 by mixing meal, bran, and the gum Segapenum 

 together. 



Camphor is a resinous gum, partly flowing of 

 its own accord, but chiefly by incision, from a 

 tall tree growing in India: the Bornean Camphor 

 is best. Choose that which is white and clear like 

 chrystal, strong- seen ted, will easily crumble be- 

 tween the fingers, and being set on fire is difficult 

 to be extinguished. There is a fictious sort, 

 .which being put into a hot loaf will parch, but 

 the true will melt : it will keep many years in 

 flax-seed if it is not exposed to the air, otherwise 

 it will evaporate and consume to nothing. 



Mr. Walton, in his Complete Angier, says, 

 that if you dissolve gum-ivy in oil of spike, anoint 

 your bait for a pike with it, that he will take it 

 the sooner. 



I shall now give the reader the ne plus ultra of 

 all these kind of ointments, composed by Mons. 

 Charras 9 apothecary-royal to Louis the Fourteenth. 

 Take cat's fat, heron's fat, and the best assafc*- 



