Ciiut. viii. W. T. F8 Contribution, L05 



thumb) ; this is very easily done with a fino brad-awl, but as a 

 brad-awl is very liable to break it, I had a special instrument mado 

 for the purpose. This was simply B spear, the size of the head of 

 a pin, very flat anil sharp. Being flat it allowed the particles, as 

 soon aa eut away, to fall down, which the brad-awl did not. ami 

 thus prevented the l: ■ ■ ' nu splitting. Several of the grains will he 

 found already split, anil it is very important to pick out only the 

 ot ones, as the more perfect they are the longer they will 

 remain on the hook. A lot of these ready bored must be provided, 

 say a match-box full, as they get used up very fast, for as soon as 

 the gram gets sodden with water, which it will do in five or ten 

 minutes, it breaks off and another has to be put on. This is the 

 one great drawback to gram-fishing, for as each grain has to be 

 threaded on tho hook, and not forced over the barb, it is necessary 

 each time to remove the hook, and having threaded on the gram to 

 replace it on the casting line. As thio occurs sometimes after one or 

 two casts, it becomes a nuisance, and to lessen it as much as 

 possible, I always arranged that, while I was fishing, my servant 

 stood behind me with another hook ready threaded with gram. 

 I thus lost very little time removing the old hook, and putting on 

 the new, but even this dodge is only a slight improvement, and the 

 old nuisance remains. The only real remedy is to use artificial 

 gram. I have made this for myself by using a very white hard 

 wood (I have forgotten the name), and after carving out the grain 

 of gram, covering it with a thin coating of shellac varnish, this gave 

 it the slight yellow tint of the natural grain, and also prevented it 

 from getting dirty, and soaked with water. I found I was jus! B£ 

 successful with this, as with the real gram, but as it used to take 

 me hours to make a single grain, and that even then only every 

 third or fourth one was at all like the original, I thought the game 

 not worth the candle, and soon reverted to natural gram. No doubt 

 if Farlow or some other tackle-maker could be induced to make 

 them it would lie a boon to tishers ;it Jubbulpore. 



Having got the bait we now go to the river, and get the tackle 

 ready. For a casting line I used double gut, twisted just enough to 

 keep the strands together ; the hook also was tied on doable 

 gut, but the loop for joining it to the casting line must be tied 

 with silk, not knotted, otherwise the knot would not pass through the 

 hole in the gram. For the hook I used a No. 7 Limerick, or the same- 

 size Sneck bend. This size just held the two grains of gram, and was 

 not too heavy to prevent it from floating, which it did naturally on 

 account of the lightness of ths gram. I think I preferred the S 



