Tackle 67 



cal in size and quality. I once had one of several 

 tied for me by Nicholas Brown of the Weir Cot- 

 tage, Galway, Ireland, which I used for an entire 

 season and took on it thirty-eight salmon. The 

 gut was not extra heavy, but very hard and as 

 stiff, when dry, as a wire of the same size would 

 be. It is still apparently fit for service, but I am 

 preserving it along with other " memorabilia " of 

 my angling experiences. Good salmon gut should 

 stand a strain of fourteen to eighteen pounds 

 before breaking, but it is not advisable to test any 

 the angler is going to use as highly as that, e.g. 

 a man was once backed to eat a leg of mutton at 

 2 P.M. At 12 M. his supporters were betting on 

 him heavily ; and one of them, being asked by a 

 friend what made him so sure of victory, replied, 

 in confidence, that his man could not lose, as they 

 had that morning tested him on two legs of mut- 

 ton, which he had finished easily. 



Reels 



A good reel is of the first importance in salmon 

 fishing, and until the past few years the art of 

 making one had practically ceased in develop- 

 ment for half a century. However, of late, there 

 has been very great improvement, not only in the 



