FISHING TACKLE AND HOW TO MAKE IT. 457 



pulled the whiter it gets. The wax is suitable especially for 

 Salmon fly tying, where grease is likely to be detrimental to 

 the fine shades of silk employed. 



2. Two ozs. best yellow resin; one drachm white beeswax 

 sliced; dissolve, then add two and one-half drachms fresh 

 lard. Pour out into water and pull till cold. 



3. Yellow resin, twenty-three draehms; beeswax, thirteen 

 drachms; suet (without skin) two and one-half drachms; 

 melt together and pour into water, pulling till cold as before. 



Either of the above recipes may be rendered tougher and 

 more sticky by the addition of say five per cent, of gutta- 

 percha the sheet gutta-percha is the best. 



With these formularies the tyro is well supplied. It will 

 perhaps be necessary to keep all of these in moderately warm 

 quarters, that they do not become brittle, but in summer 

 they should be stored, either in clean water or in a cellar 

 where the temperature is not liable to great change. 



The most useful all-round varnish is that made from 

 bleached shellac. It can be manufactured by the amateur 

 without difficulty, from alcohol and pulverized bleached 

 shellac; but it is better to buy it from some good varnish- 

 maker, because there is the certainty of its having been 

 matured, in that case, before it is offered for sale. This 

 shellac varnish requires to have been made quite a long time, 

 before it is at its best for use on flies, hooks, and whipping 

 generally. When using it, it should occasionally be thinned 

 with a little 95-per-cent. alcohol. It ought to penetrate 

 not simply lie on the outside of the whipping. 



Here is a "wrinkle" worth knowing, in connection with all 

 alcohol varnishes: Alcohol has a strong affinity for water, 

 and extracts it from the atmosphere whenever the cork is 

 out of the varnish-bottle. Of course the amount it attracts 

 is infinitesimal, but "many mickles make a muckle," as the 

 Scotch say, and the least amount of water in the varnish 

 tends to render it less resisting to moisture. To cure this I 



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