LINES AND REELS. 31 
green tinge described. Very often a few instants’ immersion will be 
sufficient, and in order to ascertain the exact amount of the stain, as 
well as to avoid overstaining, it is best always to keep a basin of water 
close at hand to rinse the gut in, the moment it is taken out of the dye. 
‘ 
This method of staining involves a little extra trouble, 
but it is trouble well bestowed, and will tell on the 
baskets. The removal of the gloss is I think due to the 
action of the copperas. Every description of gut used 
in fishing should be stained in this manner. 
To produce the common stains already mentioned :— 
Red-water stain.—Use tea-leaves as above described: or coffee, pre- 
viously charred in a frying-pan and ground, will answer instead of tea. 
Walnut-juice, I understand, produces a similar colour, 
but as I have never tried it, I cannot speak from expe- 
rience. 
Slate stain.—Soak the gut in a mixture of boiling water and ink: 
rinsing it well when stained. 
Gut can be stained almost any colour by the use of 
“Judson’s anzline dyes,” or the “popular dyes,” which 
are kept by most large chemists. Directions for use are 
given on the bottles, but the angler will find it conve- 
nient in every case only to use half the proportion of 
water recommended: and some of the stains have the 
effect of destroying the texture of the gut. 
All gut stains can be reduced in intensity by boiling 
the gut in clean water. 
