60 COLOURS OF GUT. 



and I do so on principle. Our aim, of course, 

 in colouring the gut at all, is to render it less 

 visible to the fish's eye. Of all others, plain gut 

 cannot be said to be the least so, for when soaked 

 it becomes opaque and white. If the water be 

 deep coffee-brown, and you fancy gut similar, 

 use the very lightest tint of brown ; for, take a 

 glass tumbler of the water, and holding it up to 

 the light, you will see how little is required ! So 

 with all other colours which fancy may lead you 

 to try. But treating the optics of fish as analo- 

 gous to man's, and considering that the least 

 attractive of notice, is the tint I allude to, I have 

 adopted it for every water, upon the same prin- 

 ciple that oculists and opticians prefer the appa- 

 rently blue-glass in spectacles to the old-fashioned 

 green-goggles. This azure, or neutral shade in 

 spectacles is that which I imitate. If it be the 

 least glaring to the eye, in the air, so is it when 

 "thro' purest chrystal gleaming;" and is it less 

 visible in water, thickened or coloured ? I am 

 well aware that many fishers have great success 

 with plain gut, or with such as is deeply stained 

 of other colours ; but might they not have 

 greater with the tint I recommend ? That we 

 should hide from the fish their danger as much 

 as possible, or I should rather say, conceal that 

 which may distract their attention from the hook 

 (for I cannot believe they feel the same dread of 



