48 SALMON AND TROUT. 



warranty for this nicety of refinement, if, indeed, it be a 

 refinement at all in the proper sense of the word. When we 

 see a porter-coloured water we forget that we are looking down 

 from above, whilst the fish we wish to catch is, in all proba- 

 bility, looking up from below, and that our line being ' flotant ' 

 is but a few inches below the surface of the water. The result 

 is that when he comes up to take the fly the stratum of water 

 interposed between the gut and the sky is really, when viewed 

 by the human eye at any rate, almost colourless. It is the 

 depth of water which produces the depth of colour. The 

 same thing again applies to the clear streams which after a 

 flood become merely slightly thickened with mud and never 

 take the red or bog-water stain under any circumstances. 



In order as far as might be to satisfy my own mind as to 

 what practically was the best stain, I arranged an experiment in 

 which the actual conditions of the floating line were as nearly 

 as possible reproduced substituting my own eye for that of 

 the fish. A glass tank was obtained with a glass bottom, and 

 I found that with about three inches of water in it the difference 

 between water stained with tea or coffee to about the same 

 extent as the red water of a river, or slightly clouded to repre- 

 sent the waters of a chalk stream, was, for practical purposes, 

 /7, and, after trying various experiments, the general conclusion 

 appeared to be that the stain which was most like the colour of 

 the sky was the least visible ; also, that the very lightest stain 

 was better than a dark one, and that in the case of perfectly 

 sound clear gut no stain at all seemed practically to be required, 

 as the negative colour, or rather approximate colourlessness, of 

 the gut harmonised, on the whole, very well with most kinds 

 of sky tint. 



Probably a light ink-and-water, or * slate,' stain is as good 

 as any, taking one day with another. To produce it, mix 

 boiling water and black ink, and soak the gut in it rinsing 

 it thoroughly when it has attained the desired colour. This, 

 indeed, is a precaution that should never be omitted in staining 

 gut. which is otherwise apt to lose its transparency. When too 



