GUT AND CASTING LINES. 41 



stated to be frequently paid in Marseilles this gut being, it 

 appears, principally exported to Constantinople. Some sam- 

 ples of the 1884 crop, tested by my friend Mr. R. B. Marston, 

 broke at a dead strain of seventeen pounds. A writer under 

 the signature of ' Creel,' mentions that some fifty years ago 

 there could be found in the market a superior class of salmon 

 gut now said to be unprocurable owing to the total extinction 

 of the silkworm that produced it. 'Since this time,' he says, 

 * we have more than once been informed that a new breed of 

 silkworm has been raised and encouraged in the South of 

 France, introduced from Japan, possessing all the features of 

 the former fine and strong gut which from its absence has 

 caused the lament of many a veteran salmon fisher.' 



In the selection of gut, aim first, as Chitty says, in his 

 ' Fly Fisher's Text-book,' 'at that which is perfectly round,' to 

 which end the best assistance the eye can receive is from the 

 thumb and forefinger, between which the gut should be rolled 

 quickly ; if it is not round but flat, the defect by this process 

 will be at once discovered. Next to roundness, colourlessness 

 and transparency are the two points of most importance ; and 

 last though, as some fishermen will perhaps suggest, not least 

 comes the question of length. Chitty, above named, gives 

 for salmon gut 'the part used' 'sixteen to eighteen inches 

 at least.' I can only say I wish we may get it ! In these 

 degenerate days ten to twelve inches would be nearer the 

 ordinary attainable mark, and for trout gut an inch or two more, 

 say thirteen to fourteen, or, in exceptionally good strands, 

 fifteen inches, when the casts are made tip. 



'Drawn gut,' as it is called, is simply gut that has been 

 artificially scraped or fined down by being ' drawn ' through a 

 hole of a certain gauge or measure. For this purpose a steel 

 plate is used having several holes or gauges diminishing gra- 

 dually in size, and the ' face edges ' of which are quite sharp. 

 The gut is put through the holes in succession, beginning at 

 the largest and ending with the smallest, when it has of course 

 become of the desired fineness. The appearance of the gut 



