HOOKS. 27 



were merely 'palliatives,' and only substituted one inconveni- 

 ence for another. 



'"With the discovery of an automatic method of knott- 

 ing, a real ' transformation scene ' took place, and the 

 eyed-hook problem made a broad stride towards solution. 

 Indeed, for my own part, I could have been well content to 

 * rest and be thankful ' at the point of practical perfection then 

 reached. . . . But there are brethren of the angle good sports- 

 men and true' weak-kneed' as to their faith in the non-slippa- 

 bleness of the simple jam knot under every circumstance, and 

 in fact they are so far admittedly right that if the eye happened 

 to be too coarse, and the gut happened to be too fine, and the 

 4 spare end ' happened to be cut off too close, it is quite con- 

 ceivable such a catastrophe as a critical slip might occur ! . . . 

 In any case, however, it is good to please all sides, wherever 

 such a consummation is attainable, and as I have found a still 

 simpler automatic method of tying a still stronger form of jam 

 knot, I take advantage of the columns of the Fishing Gazette 

 to make it public. 1 



FIG. A. PRINCIPLE OF ' THE HALF-HITCH JAM KNOT.' 



' " Fig. A shows the principle of the knot as applied to a 

 bare hook. Tighten the coil around the hook shank, and pull 

 on the main link, and you have a 'jam knot' plus a 'half-hitch '- 

 the ' half-hitch jam,' as it has been christened. It is, in fact, 

 the knot which I have always used and recommended for a 

 bare hook (in preference to the ' Turle ' or any other knot), in 

 consequence of its combined neatness and absolute security 

 from slipping ; but hitherto I have used it for a bare hook 



1 Published by ' J. II. W.,' and tied automatically by Mr. E. R. Hill, H.C.-P. 



