Fish-hooks. 25 



this fatal error of construction. Such hooks reverse the 

 proprieties, for they are a delusion and a snare, not to 

 the fish, but to the fisherman; and this assertion is made 

 with the more emphasis since, at the first glance, they so 

 seem to present the efficiency of a large hook with the 

 unobtrusiveness of a smaller one, that they are calcu- 

 lated to deceive even the elect. 



The writer in his own fishing has usually employed 

 the Sproat-bend hook, and believes it, when made with 

 sufficient barb, as it sometimes is, not only the best ob- 

 tainable, but very nearly perfect. In slightliness to our 

 eye it seems the most graceful of any form. The short- 

 ness between the point of the hook and the bottom of 

 the bend, of which Mr. Pennell complains, is not uni- 

 versal in all makes of that form of hook. The "hog- 

 back" form is justly open to criticism. Some of these 

 hooks are made with a very small barb, on the theory 

 that the wound made by the hook is smaller, and that 

 therefore the probability of disengagement is lessened, 

 while ease of penetration is increased. The latter is un- 

 doubtedly true, but the former would seem to be an 

 error sufficiently grave to more than over-balance the 

 conceded advantage. For the integument into which 

 the hook is intended to be driven is not brittle like glass, 

 but elastic like rubber ; and the barb of the hook does 

 not cut its way before it as does a knife, but separates the 

 tissue and distends the opening so made; and this closes 

 again close around the hook the moment the passage of 

 the barb will permit. Who ever saw a trout of any size 

 taken from the water in which the wound of the hook 

 had not been enlarged by its struggles? The impor- 

 tance, then, of a fairly prominent barb is apparent, and 

 its just proportions will be a compromise, determined by 



