56 APPENDIX. 



will have wax of four degrees of hardness : that with the least wax 

 dropped from the candle being for use in hot weather, the others for 

 the different degrees of temperature of the season. You may tie 

 flies in the hottest weather of summer with the hardest, and in frosty- 

 weather with the softest wax. After the composition has become 

 cool on the board, it should be well worked in the hand as shoema- 

 kers' wax is. You should always have a bit of this wax in your bas- 

 ket, as well as some strong thread, silk, a knife and pair of scissors ; 

 and then, in the event of breaking your rod, you can make all right 

 again in a few minutes by splicing. This wax is better adapted for 

 coarse work than for fly-tying. 



(C.) 



Varnish for the Heads of Flies. 

 Coach-builders' varnish, laid on with a very fine-pointed brush. 



(D.) 



Fly-making Vices. 

 To be obtained of Rogers & Son, Sheffield. 



(E.) 



To stain Feathers. 



Before staining feathers, it is necessary to prepare them for that 

 purpose ; and the first thing to be done is to get all the natural grease 

 out of them, by soaking them in a warm solution of soap and soda, 

 and washing them in it : a few minutes will suffice for this, and they 

 must then be rinsed in clean water, to wash off all the soap. The 

 feathers are now ready to be put into the die-pot ; but with some co- 

 lours, the first step after cleansing the feathers from the oil, is to boil 

 them in a mordaunt of alum, and then to put them into the die-pot : 

 but neither the mordaunt nor the die will get into the grain of the 

 feathers, until all the oil has been extracted from them. 



