LINES AND REELS. 29 
be looked to in selecting silk-worm gut, are roundness, 
evenness of substance, and above all transparency ; and in 
the case of very fine gut, to seeing that it has not been 
scraped, or artificially fined down in any way. Gut so 
treated is what is termed “ drawn-gut.” Its appearance 
is not so glossy as the natural material, and it frays and 
wears out almost directly when exposed to moisture and 
friction of any sort. Exceedingly fine, round, naturai 
cut is, of course, somewhat expensive, and not always to 
be obtained without some trouble, but it is essential in 
many kinds of fishing, and will in the end be found 
really much more economical than gut artificially fined. 
STAINING GUT. 
Stained or clouded gut is much to be preferred to gut 
unstained, because it is less visible in the water. Diffe- 
rent fishermen affect different stains, some preferring 
what is termed the “red-water stain,’ others a neutral 
or slate tint, and others a blue. The most important 
point in the staining of gut is to remove the gloss, which 
catches the light, and on a sunny day glitters through 
the water in a manner that must produce no little as- 
tonishment among the fish, and which would probably 
equally astonish the angler himself could he obtain a 
bird’s-eye, or rather fish’s-eye, view of his line. 
In this cardinal point, however, all the ordinary stains 
used by the tackle makers signally fail; the tints of 
colour produced being moreover by no means the best 
