TROUT AND ANGLING. 339 



rapidity, whenever it becomes relaxed. The line 

 should be about thirty yards long, and made of pa- 

 tent silk and hair, either of a green or gray color ; 

 smaller lines, made of that indispensable mate- 

 rial, gut, are also necessary ; these are called 

 " casting lines" and sometimes "foot lengths" and 

 are attached, as occasion may require, to the prin- 

 cipal line, for the purpose of falling with less vio- 

 lence upon the water. A line made of hair, or 

 silk and hair wove together, is preferred, (indeed 

 no fly-fisher ever uses any other,) on account of its 

 not becoming heavy and saturated with water, 

 like lines of silk and other materials, which cling 

 to the rod, when wet and swelled, fall with vio- 

 lence when the fly is cast, and are not delivered 

 freely through the rings of the rod. 



There are some small materials which may 

 prove convenient, all duly noticed in every book 

 on angling, such as the clearing ring, the landing 

 hook, &c. The fish pannier, which should be of 

 a middle size, and the landing net, are however in- 

 dispensable. The handle of the latter should be 

 made of the lightest wood, about five feet long, 

 and the bow of the net about twelve inches in di- 

 ameter. 



The landing net is carried under the left arm, 

 and beside the use for which it is designed, of 

 landing the fish, it often proves serviceable in 



