The North Country Angler. 7 



easy and best way to make snoods ; and I think 

 one might contrive it so as to make long lines 

 with it, without knots, though I never attempted 

 it, liking my own method well enough, which is 

 this : I fix the engine against the side of a post, 

 at such a height that I can sit on a chair, and 

 reach conveniently to turn the engine with my 

 right hand, and to the low end of my snood with 

 the left hand, and so twist them perpendicularly 

 in this manner : I draw from one of my links 

 as many hairs as I would twist at one time, sup- 

 pose twelve ; four of these I draw from the rest, 

 and put the small ends of them to the root end 

 of the other eight, at which end I make a knot 

 to lose as little of the length of the plait as pos- 

 sible ; then I divide the twelve hairs into three 

 parts, having one of the four that I turned in each 

 of the two strands, and two of them in the third ; 

 I make a knot at the end of every strand, and 

 put them on to the three hooks of the engine, as 

 the ropers do their threads ; then I hang on to 

 the great knot of the snood a conic piece of lead, 

 such as masons use, with a little hook fixed in the 

 small end of it; I put the thumb and two 

 fingers of the left hand between the three strands, 

 close down to the lead, and turn the engine 

 about with my right hand, till the three strands 

 are duly twisted ; then I draw up the thumb and 

 fingers of my left hand gradually from the lead, 

 which will twirl round of itself, and keep turning 

 the engine till the snood is twisted to the very top; 

 then I unhook the three strands from the engine, 

 as soon as the lead at the low end of the snood 

 has done turning, and make a knot at the upper, 

 end of the plait. 



