24. MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 
which a trolling line should possess, and every conceiv- 
able variety of material has been at one time or other 
recommended for its composition, from “ sheep and cat- 
gut,” to “silver and silk twisted.” Even amongst more 
modern authorities some peculiar divergencies are ob- 
servable. Palmer Hackle (Robert Blakey), for instance, 
recommends horsehair, pur et simple ;—a recipe which 
I cannot think likely to prove very successful, as it is 
within the experience of most trollers that, even with 
the addition of a proportion of silk, twenty yards of 
ordinary fly-line cannot be induced to run out through 
the rings of a jack rod. A few lines further on, however, 
Mr. Blakey explains that “there ave other sorts kept by 
) 
the tackle-shops, but—he has never tried them ;’ and, 
therefore, he “will back a hair-line against them all at a 
venture.” The bare material for a trolling line of 
genuine horsehair 80 yards long, would cost from 25s. 
to 30s. 
Three qualifications are essential to a trolling line: 
strength ; a certain amount of stiffening ; and impervi- 
ousness to water, without which no line can be prevented 
from swelling and knotting into tangles when wet and 
uncoiled from the reel. And here it may be at once ad- 
mitted that these conditions are all very fairly fulfilled 
by the ordinary 8-plait dressed-silk trolling lines sup- 
plied by the tackle makers. Some discussion has re- 
cently taken place as to the merits of catechu, india- 
rubber, and other waterproof dressings, especially in 
