TYING SILKS AND WAX 73 



be employed, and for this the natural undyed 

 silk is by far the best. I use a silk supplied 

 by Messrs. William Whiteley, Ltd., on reels 

 containing 200 yards, and specified as " cream 

 No. 178." It is quite cheap and very strong, 

 and comes in useful for all manner of pur- 

 poses, such as tying hooks to gut, mending 

 breakages, and so forth. It can be unravelled 

 into three separate strands, and thus be em- 

 ployed for varying purposes, according to 

 expediency or choice. 



For actual fly-dressing Pearsall's gossamer 

 is the best. This is also supplied on reels in a 

 variety of colours. For salmon flies the colour 

 of the tying silk does not matter much, unless 

 one is very particular ; but as I find that the 

 bright orange is the strongest, that is the 

 colour I generally use. 



As to wax, the ordinary cobbler's is, I think, 

 the best. Again, if one is very particular, some 

 flies may appear to require their tying silk 

 treated with so-called colourless wax. This 

 never grips so well as the cobbler's wax, and 

 deteriorates rather quickly. Either kind of 

 wax should preferably be kept in pieces about 

 the size of peas in water. 



