HOOKS. . 115 



down ; May flies, dry flies and floating flies ; snaps, flights, 

 gangs, traces and gags ; spinners, propellers, link-swivels, 

 brake-winches and metal center gimp ; registered seat, lock- 

 fast joints, beware of imitations, etc. ; it would seem that 

 the boasted conservatism of the average Englishman weak- 

 ens as soon as he takes to angling. I saw last year in Eng- 

 land more " novelties," and revivals of old and obsolete 

 ideas, in new dresses, for the angler and fly-fisher, than 

 were ever dreamed of in my American angling philosophy. 



During my visit, the British angling mind Avas much ex- 

 ercised in regard to the re-numbering of fish hooks, started 

 by an interested angler who had " invented "' and patented 

 or " registered " a new form of hook (with the turned down 

 eye), and who wanted the Redditch manufacturers to depart 

 from a uniform system of numbering hooks that had been 

 established for nearly a century, and adopt the Kendal 

 system. 



On this subject Mr. S. Allcock, the famous hook manu- 

 facturer, says : 



"In Redditch we number from 1* to 20, the size becoming 

 smaller the higher the number, in the same way that the wire is 

 numbered. This is logical, for the finer the wire the more fre- 

 quently must it be drawn through the plates to reduce it. The 

 sizes larger than No. 1 we number 0, 00, 000, etc. This system 

 has worked well for centuries. 



" Xow, however, a manufacturer employing a very few hands 

 chooses to number his hooks backward, 20 being a large size and 

 1 a smaller size ; those smaller than No. 1 he calls 0, 00, 000, 

 etc.; and Mr. Pennell has written a book in which he adopts this 

 'numbering ; but the only reasou given for this new system is 

 that ' it is sufficiently elastic, allowing of extension either way,' " 



