234 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Directions for making of a Line, and for the coloring of both Rod and 



Line. 



PiscATOR. Well, Scholar, I have held you too long about these 

 cadis, and smaller fish, and rivers, and fish-ponds, and my spirits 

 are almost spent, and so I doubt is your patience ; but being we 

 are now almost at Tottenham, where I first met you, and where 

 we are to part, I will lose no time, but give you a little direction 

 how to make and order your lines, and to color the hair of which 

 you make your lines, for that is very needful to be known of an 

 angler ; and also how to paint your rod, especially your top, for 

 a right-grown top is a choice commodity, and should be preserved 

 from the water soaking into it, which makes' it in wet weather to 

 be heavy, and fish ill-favoredly, and not true, and also it rots 

 quickly for want of painting : and I think a good top is worth 

 preserving, or 1 had not taken care to keep a top above twenty 

 years. 



But first for your line.* First, note, that you are to take care 

 that your hair be round and clear, and free from galls or scabs 

 or frets, for a well-chosen, even, clear, round hair, of a kind of 

 glass-color, will prove as strong as three uneven scabby liairs, 

 that are ill-chosen, and full of galls or unevenncss. You shall 

 seldom find a black hair but it is round, but many wliite are flat 

 and uneven ; therefore if you get a lock of right, round, clear, 

 glass-color hair, make much of it. 



And for making your line, observe this rule : first let your hair 



* Few anglers in this country will make as good lines, or make them as 

 cheaply as they can be had at the tackle sliops ; but it must be noted that 

 angling in our mountain streams re(iuires an adaptation of their color to 

 that of the water. As a general rule, in a shaded forest stream, the grizly 

 grey line is best ; in a more open country, the pale sorrel, light slate, or 

 amber, may be better at times. — ^m. Ed. 



