78 KNOTS IN LINES. 



back, about one eighth of an inch from where I 

 commenced the whipping, so that the eighth nearest 

 to the end, when thus bent back, lies against the 

 bare gut above the whipping, thus : 



Fig. 8. 



I then merely hook the two lengths together, and 

 inserting a stoutish bit of gut, about three eighths 

 of an inch long, to keep the joint stiff, whip down 

 the whole tightly and closely with stronger silk. 

 Here then is no knot, but a bend, which, 

 from being first whipped over with the fine silk, 

 does not close in a sufficiently sharp angle to 

 cause the gut to crack, while the whipping above 

 prevents the short ends from slipping, when the 

 joint is complete and once dry after the previous 

 soaking. As to single gut, I adopt a different 

 plan again, because, being less in substance, the 

 simple bend just described is more likely to crack 

 it. In all my experience I do not remember a 

 break at the junction of the loops of the foot line 

 and gut to which the fly is attached ; and why ? 

 because the bend of the one is round the doubled 

 gut of the other, and an acute angle is avoided ; 

 therefore, for single gut, I adopt precisely that 

 knot, except that the junction of the two loops 

 is altogether permanently whipped over. This is 



