192 SALMON AND TROUT. 



been used look like perfection in the fishing-tackle maker's 

 shop, it will often be found after they have been used a very 

 short time they will ' knuckle,' when they may just as well be 

 thrown into the fire. There is no mistaking a 'knuckled' 

 line, and nothing can be more unsightly. Instead of being the 

 beautiful even-looking coil that came out of the fishing-tackle 

 maker's shop, about every two inches or so, where the line has 

 passed through the rings of the rod, the varnish conies off in 

 dust, and a small white ring appears, giving the line the appear- 

 ance of the knuckles of the finger. 



I have seen many of the best American dressed lines 'knuckle' 

 in a very short time and become quite unfit for use. After 

 paying a good price for a line, nothing to my mind can be more 

 annoying or disappointing, and if this were to happen in a far-off 

 country where there were no fishing-tackle makers' shops, for 

 instance in Norway or Canada, the consequences might be very 

 serious. This evil can, however, be avoided by dressing lines 

 in my fashion, and these I will guarantee to last for years if 

 taken care of and dried every day after fishing. I would not 

 trust the-best looking dressed line that ever came out of a 

 fishing-tackle maker's shop ; but the wholesale manufacturers 

 are to blame for this, and not the fishing-tackle makers, who as 

 a rule do the best they can to supply the best article for their 

 customers. I would recommend anyone who has time to spare 

 to dress his own lines, but without dryers ; or, if he has not any 

 time to spare, to use them undressed. An undressed line will get 

 saturated with water after the first cast, and this supplying the 

 place of the dressing, the line will be found quite heavy enough 

 to make the longest cast required. The only objection, and 

 it is but a very trivial one, to the use of undressed lines, is that 

 should it be desired to add to the length of a cast by pulling 

 out a yard or so of line before the cast is made, when this is 

 let go it is very apt in its wet state to get twisted around the 

 butt of the rod, which will defeat the object 



