448 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



ling, will require only 30 or 35 yards, while the larger 

 varieties of trout and the salmon should always have 

 from 60 to 80 yards ready for their capture. The hair- 

 line should be regularly tapered, and should vary in 

 strength from 24 hairs down to 14 for salmon, and from 

 18 down to 10 or 12 for trout. The tapering portion, 

 however, should only extend in the trout line as far as it 

 is clear of the reel, which may be estimated at about half 

 the length of the line ; and in the salmon line only for 

 about 20 yards from the end. Plaited silk lines are now 

 much used, especially for salmon, but I confess I have 

 never seen any line which could be thrown with as much 

 certainty as the hand-made horse-hair line. It has just 

 sufficient stiffness to carry ijfcself smoothly through the air, 

 with pliancy enough to adapt itself to all the varying evo- 

 lutions of the angler's wrists and arms. The casting-line 

 is composed of two, and sometimes of three portions ; the 

 first, or extreme portion consisting, in all cases, of several 

 lengths of single gut carefully knotted together, with or 

 without silk " lapping ; " the next portion is usually of 

 treble gut, twisted by the machine, or by quills and bobbins. 

 To these some anglers add a third portion of twisted hair, 

 which, however, is unnecessary if the reel-line is properly 

 tapered, and is of hair also. The great principle to be 

 carried out is to taper the line from the point of the rod 

 to the end, so that in working it through the air it shall 

 play smoothly, and obey the hand to the greatest nicety. 

 In this respect it should imitate the four-in-hand whip, 

 which is so graduated that it tapers all the way, and is 

 hence capable of taking a fly off the leader's ear. The 



