KNOTS IN LINES. 77 



twenty fish that escape by breaking tackle owe 

 their lives to these knots, not by their slipping, 

 but by their cutting the gut. It is the joints and 

 ferrules in rods, and knots in lines, which per- 

 plex us. Being fond of neatness, I very much 

 rely on the security of my whippings over for 

 strength of my joints, endeavouring to avoid 

 abrupt angles in the bends or knots which 

 I make in gut ; but in joining them I draw 

 a distinction between twisted and single gut, 

 and thereby, in the former, avoid the bulk 

 of any ordinary knot, by a plan of my own. 

 My plan, perhaps, may be tedious ; but remember 

 the motto, " Finis coronat opus.''' Having soaked 

 the gut for half an hour, in warm water, or much 

 longer in cold, with very fine silk I first whip over 

 separately each end of the lengths of twisted gut, 

 beginning about three-eighths and^7zi*/fi;?o" about 

 one-sixteenth of an inch from the end, thus: — 



Fig-. 7. 



which is performed, after fixing the silk, with 

 three or four turns, by holding its end between 

 the little finger and palm of the left hand at right 

 angles with the twisted gut, and holding each end 

 of the latter in either hand, and " twirling" it 

 round by means of the thumbs and fore-fingers. 

 Having done so with two lengths, while they are 

 yet moist, I bend the ends I wish to join, straight 



