CHAP. XX. Gilt. 297 



so that the machine need not be unscrewed after once fixing. The great 

 advantage gained in using this winder is that it entirely prevents the kinking 

 of the line, as is usually the case in 

 the old method of winding the line 

 round the backs of chairs, etc." 



You see he is down on me 

 and my chairs, etc. It is a ques- 

 tion for you to settle according to 

 your banker's balance, and for 

 my part I am content with my 

 old friends, the backs of two 

 chairs, and am not at all sure they are not the best after all. You can 

 place them as far apart as you like, and they give plenty of separate 

 winding space, so that line need not fall on line, and they are easily 

 made steady by placing books, clothes or anything handy on them to 

 weight them. 



Gut. For gut, too, I could wish that some fisherman, who has 

 time on his hands, would give the tussa silkworm (Anthertza Paphid) a 

 trial. It is more than twice the size of the ordinary silkworm ; and the 

 Atlas moth (Attacus Atlas) is still larger. I am inclined to think a 

 thicker and stronger piece of gut, for Salmon and Mahseer fishing, 

 might be got out of them. The process of manufacture is simple 

 enough, apparently, for, if what one reads be true, you have only to 

 take the worm, when, from a piece of silk hanging from his nose, you 

 see he meditates spinning, and put him into a closed jar of vinegar, and 

 let him pickle therein, for some six hours in a tropical climate, more in 

 a colder ; then break him open, and taking one of the two guts, stretch 

 it between finger and thumb, and keep it stretched across a plank, by 

 hitching the ends into niches, or round pins or tacks, and put it into the 

 sun to dry. 



From " Shifts and Expedients of Camp Life, Travel, and Explora- 

 tion," by W. B. Lord and T. Bains, I quote the following : 



Silkworm gut can also be obtained wherever silk-spinning worms are 

 met with. To make it a number of the caterpillars are to be collected 

 just prior to their time of spinning. These are to be placed in a pot or 

 other convenient vessel, containing a mixture of vinegar and water in equal 

 quantities ; they are then to be covered down and allowed to stand for 

 about twelve hours. A worm may then be taken out, opened, and tested 

 a.s to its fitness for drawing. If, in pulling the yellowish green coils which 



