EUNNING LINES. 391 



Tarnish in equal parts finds favour with several old anglers of. my 

 acquaintance ; nor is this a bad dressing. The liquid should be made- 

 warm not too hot, of course, or the line will be destroyed and as it 

 very slowly dries the line should be stretched in a dry warm room, and 

 lightly drawn through the folds of a piece of washleather held by the 

 finger and thumb to remove the superfluous dressing. Ordinarily the 

 preparation will not dry completely in less than a fortnight, but on no 

 account ought the line to be used till quite hard. It will be found that 

 this dressing, though not quite waterproof, really does preserve the line 

 very satisfactorily. Copal varnish may be substituted for the boat- 

 makers', but I find that unless some gold size be added it is a very 

 brittle dressing. Half and half of gold size and boiled oil is a rapidly 

 drying dressing. White indiarubber dissolved in turpentine is, when 

 dried (this takes some time) a thoroughly waterproof preparation. The 

 rubber must be cut up into small chips, and a little heat should be 

 applied to hasten its complete solution. The following is a capital 

 recipe for waterproofing lines : 



Boiled oil, 1 pint ; beeswax, ilb. Put the oil in a gallipot and stand it 

 in water kept boiling, while the wax is added in small pinches. Stretch 

 and dry as before advised. 



Also : i pint of boiled oil ; f oz. beeswax ; loz. Burgundy pitch ; 1 

 tablespoonful copal varnish. Treat the line as before after immersing it 

 in the mixture, which should not be raised to a greater heat than is- 

 necessary to quite liquify the component parts. It is advisable to allow 

 the line to remain in some considerable period that the dressing may 

 quite permeate it. I have a line dressed with this recipe which has been, 

 in constant use for trolling for four years. Of course it has been, 

 redressed several times. 



A line may be waterproofed by gold size and indiarubber thus : Pass 

 a new line several times through gold size, drying it after clearing 

 all the superfluous size away with a piece of rag. Then prepare an 

 indiarubber solution in this wise (which, by the bye, is a splendid dress- 

 ing for boots, &c.) : Get a flask of salad oil, a piece of indiarubber about 

 the size of a small apple, cut it into tiny shreds, and place these shreds. 

 in the oil in a tin saucepan. This must be heated either by water-bath,, 

 sand-bath, or the oven, for some fortnight or so, till the indiarubber has; 

 dissolved. It will be of a treacly consistence, and if either thicker or 

 thinner than this more indiarubber or oil must be added. The line is. 

 passed into this, and hung out to dry as before. Before using, and when 

 the line is quite dry, it is a good plan to first pass a piece of washleather, 

 on which is smeared some palm oil, over it. 



Another recipe : ioz. beeswax, i pint boiled oil, i pint gold size, linea 



