RE EL- LINES. Sl 



wide a field open before me that I despair of being able to do 

 justice to the numberless different descriptions of lines, dressed 

 and undressed, silk, hemp, hair, and what not, which compete 

 for the fly-fisher's favour. 



When I served my apprenticeship to the craft almost every- 

 body used a line composed of a mixture of silk and hair, and 

 this has still some votaries left, amongst whom, however, I am 

 decidedly not one. It had, in fact, only one good quality, 

 lightness ; perhaps I should say half a good quality, because 

 the lightness which is of advantage in the water is a great dis- 

 advantage in casting against the wind. For the rest, this silk- 

 and-hair line possesses pretty nearly every drawback that can 

 well be combined. 



Hair by itself may be dismissed in a very few words. As 

 contrasted with the silk mixture, it possesses its virtues in a 

 greater and its faults in a minor degree. It is still more flotant 

 in the water, where also it is much less visible, and it never gets 

 rotten. But as a set-off the difficulty of casting against the 

 wind and the friction in the rod-rings are, of course, exag- 

 gerated. On the whole, although I have used reel-lines entirely 

 made of brown horsehair for trout fishing in calm and bright 

 weather with considerable satisfaction, I decidedly prefer a 

 dressed i.e. waterproofed line (lately much improved), which 

 is suitable for windy as well as calm weather, and which with 

 proper care will last quite long enough for all practical purposes. 



For salmon fishing, of course, lines made of hair or of silk 

 and hair, would be put out of court on one ground alone, 

 namely, a want of sufficient strength. 



With regard to the question of hemp or silk, there is 

 nothing that makes a better, or perhaps as good, a ' back-line ' 

 as hemp, but as it will not take oil dressing properly, it is 

 unsuited for any other purpose. 



Silk lines, on the contrary, take the oil dressing, or water- 

 proofing, perfectly, and admit afterwards of a smoothness and 

 polish which facilitate very greatly the running out and the 

 reeling in of the line, and should, therefore, always be preferred 



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