452 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



rial is a transparent thread, of one fiber, apparently (though 

 really many are massed together), and derives its name from 

 the fact that it is taken from the viscera of the silk-worm 

 {bombyx mori). Its length varies from twenty-three inches 

 (and even longer) to six inches; and its gauge or thickness is 

 from that of a thick carpet-needle to that of a fine human 

 hair. This latter is not often produced naturally, but is 

 got by a process termed "drawing" through fine holes in 

 steel plates in a way similar to the drawing of wire. 

 Attempts have been made, in this country, to obtain longer 

 and thicker as well as strong gut from the native silk worm 

 (attacus cccropia), but they have failed the gut being 

 very brittle, though of good appearance, and in some in- 

 stances, three yards in the length of a single strand. 



The process of gut-production, as practiced by the peas- 

 ants of Murcia (Spain), from which cholera-tainted town 

 almost all the gut in use is imported, is described by Mr. S. 

 Allcock, the largest gut-factor in the world, as follows: 



"Worms are bred by the country people in their cottages 

 or houses, which usually consist of two rooms on one floor. 

 The roofs of the houses being nearly flat, no fire-place in 

 the houses, the cooking is done outside in the yard. The 

 windows are simply iron cross-bars without glass in the 

 sleeping room. They tie together bamboo cane reeds (which 

 grow plentifully there) with string, forming a bed from 

 twelve to fifteen feet long by four feet wide, raised from the 

 floor about four feet high. The worms are spread all over 

 these beds formed of cane, and are fed five times daily by 

 covering them with mulberry leaves. Before feeding, all the 

 dead and sickly worms are picked out, so that the others are 

 kept in a healthy state. The worm lives about fifty days, 

 during which time they sleep three days at a time, in all 

 twelve days. When they are ready to spin into the cocoon 

 they creep upon branches of small trees cut out of the gar- 

 dens, which are placed over the worms. They are taken off, 



